Lingering Phantoms of the Past
by Star24NightFromDA
Summary: Someone... something is among them... they can feel it, but Sonic... he sees it. (This is after Sonic Forces)
1. Prologue: Tonight is the Night

**Prologue**

Tonight is the Night

* * *

"Chaos Chips and Onion Rings! Ooooo, how about the Honey Cookies too!"

"CHARMY! Just pick one- we'll take the other ones next time we beat Eggman," said the crocodile who was wearing headphones.

"It would also not be wise considering how much money we have currently," replied the ninja of the group. In response to this, the bee began to wail while hitting the products everywhere- including in the faces of his friends.

"But I want them! I WANT THEM!"

"CAN'T YOU JUST WAIT?! IT'LL ONLY BE A MONTH," yelled the leader of the Chaotix while trying to be heard over the whines of the child.

Overlooked by the two -except for Espio-, a concerned pink hedgehog approached them.

"Hey guys, have any of you seen Sonic lately? He was supposed to meet me here to pick out decorations for tonight's party."

Espio -who was relieved to actually talk to someone other than his two friends- tried to reply over the argument behind him, "No, we haven't seen him since the day the war ended."

"Are you sure? It's been a week since then and I haven't seen him hanging out with Tails," pushed the pink hedgehog who was holding a shopping bag.

"I assure you, Amy, we haven't seen a glimpse of-"

The Rhino was instantly cut off by Vector.

"Wait! Someone's missing? Who?"

"It's my darling Soniku, can you guys help me find him?"

Vector was about to answer her question when suddenly he heard the sound of crunching. The crocodile turned around to face the bee who was munching in his ear...

"Charmy! That's disgusting! You don't chew in the ears of others!"

Charmy, who was about to eat another Honey Cookie, stopped and blushed. "Sorry, Vector. I was really, really, really, reaaallyy hungry..."

"It's fine just don't- waittt..."

Finally noticing that the bee had opened not only the Honey Cookies but the Chaos Chips and Onion Rings as well- Vector sighed. The crocodile had had enough of his friend today, so he grabbed the bee with one hand and gave him to Espio.

"Espio, please, just do me a favor and hold Charmy."

The ninja took Charmy as the girl in front of them smiled from their family-like manner.

"Hey! No fair, let go!"

With the Ninja walking away with the bee in his arms, Vector was peaceful enough to answer Amy's question.

"As I was about to say, sure! We can help!"

Amy, elated, nearly squealed out in excitement. That was until the crocodile spoke up again.

"Starting from 23 rings that is-"

"What?! Can I pay you guys later?"

Vector took a moment to think about it but came to the conclusion that they needed the money now to pay for the products that Charmy just ruined.

"Nope, it has to be paid right at this second!"

"No way! Forget it Vector, I'll find him myself!"

The young girl stormed off in anger. She could have been using this time to check out at the cash register!

"No, Amy wait! I'll give you a 5% discount!"

It was a pointless attempt, which Amy ignored; she was glad she did though because when she looked outside the store's windows she could see him- the blue blur. Sonic.

* * *

 **Please, don't steal my work!**

 **If you make artwork of this please credit me and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


	2. Chapter 1: Party Poopers

**Chapter** **1**

Party Poopers

* * *

 _To the Rookie_ was said in union before the clinking of glass was heard across the room. Blushing, the red wolf sheepishly smiled as they all took a sip of their drinks. Never in a million years did the young powerless teenager think he would fight side by side with the Freedom Fighters, Möbius' group of heroes, nor go against someone like Infinite- a villain that even Sonic The Hedgehog had once feared.

At the mention of the speed demon's name, the Rookie looked around the room until spotting the trademark sneakers everyone knew, lounged upon one of the tables. Brown eyes trailed up to their owner's face yet was not greeted by the normally open emerald jewels. Instead, they were met by eyelids that twitch ever so slightly to the beat of the music. It surprised the youth that Sonic had fallen asleep in the middle of their end-of-the-war celebration party, let alone the fact that his nap had gone unnoticed. Then again, Sonic had always seemed tired since the day they became friends on the Death Egg… or... maybe he just enjoys taking naps.

The Rookie's train of thoughts were interrupted by a lean, yet heavy, arm that placed itself over the wolf's shoulders.

"Any reason why you're creepily staring at sleeping beauty there, Rookie," interrogated the teasing leader of the team.

Caught off guard and slightly embarrassed by the question, the young red wolf shook his head and pointed towards the window above Sonic- implying that he had been staring at the sunset. The echidna, who was not buying it, play-punched the teen.

"Hey, come on. I was just joking, Rookie! It's okay to be concerned for a friend- in fact, it's a great trait to have in a team!"

The Rookie shyly smiled once more before his attention came back to the Blue Blur who stirred a bit.

"It's alright-" the guardian took a swing of his soda. "Sonic typically has the worst timing when it comes to his naps- especially now that the war is over."

Letting go of the Rookie's shoulder, Knuckles began to slowly walk backwards towards the blue hedgie while facing the wolf. The confused wolf tilted his head in curiosity, which made the echidna smirk.

"Like I said-" the echidna pulls out a marker from his… somewhere… "Sonic takes naps at the worst timings." The guardian then pulls out another marker while mischievously raising an eyebrow at his witness. "Care to join?"

The Rookie rose his hands up half-way while swaying his head left and right.

"Suit yourself," said the shrugging echidna who turned around in utter excitement. Shaking his head in amusement, the youth walks away from the inevitable future fight only to be grabbed by the shoulder and instantly brought into an empty dark room.

The wolf was surprised by the sudden change of scenery and immediately took a fighting stance. Even with his ears swerving around for any noise, other than the music, he could not locate where the kidnapper was. After a few minutes had passed the sound of a switch being flicked hit the wolf's ears and he spun around to meet the crimson eyes of the Ultimate Life Form. Out of confusion, the Rookie forgot to lower his lightning wispon, which made the black hedgie narrow his eyes.

"Put the gun down if you know what's good for you, kid."

The kid -with absolutely no desire to piss off the being in front of him- dropped the gun down on the floor; however, the gun fell right on its trigger. A short yelp came out of the Rookie's mouth as he barely dodged the electrical whip that spluttered out of his wispon. Shadow, on the other hand, did not move from his location- even when the wispon left on the door a five-foot mark that was a single inch away from his face. When the youth looked up he was welcomed by a death stare- one that matched, or was even worse than, Infinite's. Growling, Shadow began to approach the pasty-pale face of the Rookie who sat there gulping.

"There's no time for games, kid! Get up!" Following the command, the Rookie -with wide eyes- stood up and watched Shadow, who was still steaming from the ears. Ears that softened up as the hedgehog tried to speak again, but he shut his mouth once he saw the Rookie sweating bullets. Bullets that made the ebony being shuffle his legs and cross his arms.

"I'm not going to kill you. I just… need your help with something… important…" After hearing those words come out the now awkward hedgie, the Rookie felt a tad bit relieved. That being said, he uneasily got up from the floor and waited for Shadow to speak.

"Ehem… umm… well, you see… I… Rouge's, UGH! Can you just do me a favor and turn around?"

To the red striped hedgie's annoyance, the young wolf cocked his head.

"JUST TO IT!"

Once again, the Rookie followed his demand but not before seeing… what might have been… a blush? ' _What on Möbius did I do to have to go through this-I don't know anything about girls,'_ thought the young teen as he, _once again,_ waited to hear what Shadow had to say.

"Okay, as you may or may not know, Rouge's day of birth-"

The Rookie, not used to the syntax, squinted his eyes and turned his head to look at the hedgehog who snarled at him for looking. ' _He_ is _blushing,'_ realized the red furred möbian who faced the other way again.

"Do that again and we'll have to find faker a new partner…"

' _It's definitely girl stuff…'_

"Her _day of birth_ is coming up on the 14th of next month, and I would like to throw her a… _birth-day_ party. But I need help… because I don't know how… to throw one or what she would like as a gift…"

' _Yep, and her birthday happens to be on Valentines Day, sure…'_

"Specifically help from you, kid. I've thought about asking the others-"

' _Well okay then-'_

"-but faker is annoying and won't shut up, Silver -although he's definitely gay- doesn't wear accessories-"

' _Is he implying something?!'_

"-Knuckles… there's something going on between him and Rouge, Amy is too girly, Tails is a nerd, and Cream - oh, OOH, oohh, Cream that LITTLE-"

"ROOKIE? ROOKIE, I THINK TAILS NEEDS YOUR HELP! ROOKIE WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"Hmm… it looks like they're looking for you-"

The youth turned around and took a step towards the door near Shadow but was stopped by a chaos spear thrown in front of the wolf's feet.

"-don't think you're off the grid yet- be at the Mystic Ruins Market by 6 am this Saturday, or else…"

Shadow watched as the Rookie, who was now upset with his new weekend schedule, past him and exited the empty room before the hedgehog teleported away.

"Oh, thank Chaos I found you! Tails needs your help opening Sonic's bedroom to make sure if he's okay. I don't know exactly what happened but when I find out whoever did this- they will pay for upsetting my Soniku," said the furious yet passionate pink hedgehog.

As if the sweaty wolf was not nervous enough, now he has to deal with the possibility of being hammered in… after all, he did let Knuckles do whatever he did to Sonic. He was sure that this would be the case. Amy Rose grabbed the Rookie by the arm and literally dragged him towards the bedroom door where several concerned Freedom Fighters stood. Tails, who could be seen in the middle of the crowd and closest to the door, was telling them that there was no need for a crowd. That his blue best friend will be fine.

Amy, who had let go of the red wolf's arm, jumped into the middle of the crowd and started to yell at them all -except for Tails- to back up.

Looking to the left of him, the Rookie could see Knuckles trying to clean up some sort of mess. When the wolf approached the red echidna he could make out the speakers of a radio within the pile that the guardian was cleaning… Wanting answers as to what had happened and why Knuckles' scrunched up face was as red as his own fur, the youth poked him on the shoulder.

"What!?"

The angry guardian made a quick turnaround to face what he believed to be Amy but was relieved that it was only the Rookie. The Rookie, on the other hand, was wary.

"Ugh, sorry about that. I thought you were Amy- man she can be overdramatic when it comes to Sonic!"

Knuckles rubbed the side of his head where there seemed to be a painful-looking lump. His attention to his lump shifted to the finger that pointed at the pile of pieces beneath himself.

"Oh, that? Sonic crashed into that just a while ago before he went into his room…Then Amy came asking me questions, and I refused to answer."

The Rookie stared at Knuckles in confusion- why was he so confused about everything today?

"You're wondering why?"

The Rookie nods his head.

"Well, do you remember when you left me with needle nose back there? I ended up drawing all over his face -which was hilarious by the way, you should have joined me- but when I finished coloring the mustache on him he woke up. Actually, more like woke up in a daze. I tried asking him if he was okay, but he started to freak out. It was like he just realized something horrific. Then he bolted to his bedroom but not before he wrecked my radio- my baby!"

' _So that's why the music stopped…'_

The guardian began to tear up angry tears, but they did not flow down his face. Picking up the pieces, Knuckles tried to put them back together.

"It's hard earning a salary when all you do it protect the Master Emerald!"

Wanting to understand why Sonic had gone berserk and destroyed the echidna's radio, the Rookie patted Knuckles on the back and went to where Tails was- where the crowd of his friends had been.

"Finally you came, Buddy! I've been trying to get him out for the past 20 minutes but he hasn't replied to anything I've said. I don't think I've ever seen Sonic this upset before- do you have any idea of what happened. No one else seems to know…"

"Do you know what happened to my darling," pitched in Amy Rose.

The wolf was torn between either telling them the truth or flat out lie to them. If he told them they might have a better chance of getting their friend out if his room. However, if he did that, then the Rookie would be placing both Knuckles and himself at risk- Amy would surely slaughter them.

A moment of silence between the trio past as they were waiting to hear the wolf's reply. Amy and Tails began to become suspicious until they heard the sound of a door unlocking…

* * *

 **Please, don't steal my work!**

 **If you make artwork of this please credit me and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


	3. Chapter 2: The Deceiver

**Chapter 2**

The Deceiver

* * *

"Uh… hi?" Sonic took the headphones off from his ears as he stepped out of his room with ease.

"What's going on?"

All three just stared at his clean wet face for a moment before Amy broke the silence.

"The real question here is what's going on with you! Where have you been this entire week, Sonic?!"

"Well, you know… traveling, seeing some sights here and there…"

"Then why did I see you in front of Perfect Party today?"

"Umm, looking for yo-"

"That's a lie! I saw you run off in the distance!"

Not wanting to anger Amy more than he already had, Sonic began to look around for an exit, but his search stopped when his best friend gasped.

"Sonic, what happened to your room?"

Amy and the Rookie both followed Tails' gaze and found a room that was almost entirely upside-down. Sheets were everywhere with pillows here and there, and a cabinet-which was now on its side-had poured out a river of socks and gloves across the floor. Red and white shoes sprinkled the room as if for decoration- and in the middle of everything was a flipped table, which smashed a pizza box that was once placed upon it. The only thing that survived from whatever happened was his holographic TV.

"...Oh, whoops. I was just trying to find my 50% off chili-dog coupon…"

The blue blur held up more than five coupons in his left hand and smiled.

"Turns out that they've been expired for nearly two months- time flies when there's a war, heh," said the hedgehog as he scratched the back of his head.

A sigh of annoyance was heard from all three of Sonic's friends… it was just typical Sonic stuff.

"Wait, so why were you in there for more than twenty minutes," asked the kitsune.

"Oh," said Sonic as he took his time taking off his headphones, which were laying on his shoulders.

"While I was looking for the coupons I spotted these in my closet. I haven't used these headphones for... well, two months," answered the smiling, yet slightly off, blue hedgie.

Suddenly, a glove popped out of nowhere and snatched the headphones from Sonic's hands.

"Hey!"

"Thank you, these will do," replied the thief.

"Those are mine, Knuckles!"

"So was my expensive radio, Sonic!"

"I gave you that radio!"

"No, I bought it from you and now I want a replacement, so here," claimed the echidna as he gave the frowning hedgehog pieces of what was once a radio. Placing the headphones on his head, Knuckles turned around and began to walk away…

"B-but-"

The hedgehog, along with his three other friends, watched as the hot-head entered the fruit punch area.

"Aww, those were the only pairs I could find that would connect to the radio…"

"Well, you did break _his_ radio, Sonic."

The speedster had the urge to tell Tails to shut up, but he chose to ignore the response and huffed instead. Before the blue hedgehog could say another word, a very loud growl was heard. Sonic's eyes widened.

"..."

"Hungry there, Sonic," asked Tails who was holding in laughter. Tails was truly trying to push his nerves today.

Closing his mouth, the speedster crossed his arms as his face began to show a tinge of red. Gasping, Amy's eyes sparkled as she bumped shoulders with the Rookie, who was in her way.

"This would be a perfect opportunity for me to cook food for you, Soniku!"

Tails, who's tails fell to the ground and ears folded, immediately scrunched his nose and stuck his tongue out. The Rookie raised an eyebrow in amusement as Sonic forced a smile upon his face.

"G-great Amy, but I-I was thinking about having a san-"

The pink hedgehog grabbed Sonic's wrist and escorted the wincing blue blur to the kitchen. The Rookie was sure as heck happy that he was not Sonic right now, but this changed when the green-faced kitsune threw-up all over the wolf's shoes.

' _Ewwwww'_

"S-sorry about that, B-Buddy. I was just remembering the waffles Amy made for us a while back…"

At this point, the wolf's cringing face resembled the face of a pug… Pinching his nose, the wolf forgave the kitsune-who began to clean up the mess-and went to the restroom near the fruit punch area. The Rookie walked past Knuckles and Rouge, who were having a conversation.

"-maybe, or maybe not. Who knows?"

"True…"

Nothing more was said until Rouge took a glance at Sonic, who sat nervously in a chair waiting for Amy to serve him.

"Hey, Knuxey… What do you think of those two?"

"Hmm? Them? To be honest, I think Amy's just obsessed with Sonic…"

"I don't know… He does seem to listen to her… I mean he's still sitting there."

"Look closer, Rouge," said Knuckles who scoffed at Rouge's assumptions. He always disliked it when people assumed…

Looking closer, Rouge found absolutely nothing wrong…

"Andddd I told you-"

"Just wait for it…"

The blue hedgehog lifted his hands up slowly and placed them on the sit he was sitting in. Furrowing her brow in confusion, Rouge watched as Sonic slowly stuck his foot out from underneath the table. He was about to get up, but Amy-who had her back faced towards him-twisted her head sideways. Her hypnotic flaming eyes staring deep into his soul.

"Soniku, do you like... spice in your food?..."

"N-no thanks, A-Amy…" said the hedgehog as he threw himself back into the chair.

"See," proved the echidna to the batgirl.

"What I see, Knuxey, is definitely a bond, trust me," replied the black winged möbian, who waited for the guardian's reply.

"...What makes you say that? Didn't you see the way Amy looked at Sonic?"

"Oh, I've had experience before with a hot-head," replied the bat, who watched the echidna's expression with interest.

Even though Knuckles did not want to seem nosy, he could not help but pry into her history with her… ' _past-partners.'_ Although, instead of directly asking her who it had been, he decided to beat around the bush to see if he could find out without exposing himself.

"And why was he like that with you?"

Rouge leaned on the wall and crossed her arms as she spoke.

"Well, he is a hot-head by nature, but really I think it was my fault he was like that with me…"

With curiosity nearly killing him, the echidna-to the bat's pleasure-dug deeper.

"What did you do to make him so mad at you?"

The G.U.N. agent closed her eyes as she used the wall to support her head.

"Oh, I just happen to have taken something precious from him- in fact, to this very day I still have his emerald…"

"Of course it would be something li- waaait…"

Tilting her head to see the guardian's face, Rouge grinned as she found herself looking at squinting purple eyes above red checks. Knuckles released a dinosaur-like yell that was cut briefly by the speakers that Team Chaotix took from Sonic's guitar set. The frequency waves made it so that Rouge could not hear Knuckles, and she was enjoying herself as he chased her around the household.

****Somewhere else on Möbius... ****

Containers made out of glass were filled with white liquid as they spun in union within a distributor. Once the distribution was complete, a single white-gloved hand hovered above the-now six-vials and landed itself on the brightest of them all.

Picking up the vial, the being examined it closely as if waiting for something to appear-but was disappointed by the liquid's stable color of yellow…

Sighing, the being shoved everything off his desk in frustration- why was this such a difficult thing to do?

The being leaned back in his chair to try and reduce the rising pain of his headache but was startled by a deep voice behind him.

"Gave up so easily I see…"

The being in the seat rolled his eyes and twisted his chair around to face the shorter being.

"I've been trying to come up with this formula for a week now- I'd like to see you try and make it!"

The shorter one was silently staring at the other for a second before answering in a deep, yet quiet, tone.

"I'd hold your tongue in if I were you…"

The older being hated when the younger one would make threats so-in order to try and soften the tension-the taller being changed the subject.

"...Two and a half more weeks tops and we'll have what we need…for now, I'll work on the other project you mentioned this morning…"

"..."

The taller being stood there waiting for a comment, but was surprised when the younger one walked past him instead. The taller being kept his eyes on the other as he left the room…

Aside the now-alone being were two soft, yet pulsing glows of yellow and blue light...

* * *

 **Please, don't steal my work!**

 **If you make artwork of this please credit me and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


	4. Chapter 3: Nothing Adds Up

**Chapter 3**

Nothing Adds Up

* * *

Over the horizon peeked the light of the sun as it rose gradually from its hiding spot and into the sky. Making the cold of the night disappear, photons began to enter the atmosphere and rose the temperature to everything it made contact to. This awoken the well-rested, local critters of Green Hill into a day with spotless skies.

Ears of a humanoid möbian fluttered to the distant sound of bird calls, one of which happened to wake the being up… or at least made him crack open an eye. Spying around, he could see the yellow rays bouncing off the walls in an effort to try and take his vision away. No- he will not be losing his eyesight today, so the male möbian yanked the covers over his head and lowered his eyelids. Maybe if he waited for the intensity of the sun to pass his pupils would be able to adjust without much pain… Deciding to do exactly that, the hedgehog changed from his flamingo position to a log. However, before the sun's intensity died-down, snoring erupted from his mouth- making him fall asleep once again.

The next time he woke up he found his right cheek planted against the rug of his room. As he slowly sat up he nearly hit his leg against the metal piece of structure that was holding his bed. Looking up, Möbius' number one hero blinked twice and rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was seeing the time correctly. It was 11:45 in the _morning_ \- he basically missed half of the day!

Quickly picking himself up, the hedgehog ran to his bathroom- there was still enough time for him to visit Apatos and come back before 8 pm. Swinging open the recently-cracked mirror door, he snatched both the toothbrush and toothpaste and the speed demon began to brush his teeth rapidly. The dentist had always scolded him to never do this to his teeth, but he could not help but brush fast- especially since he was already late for his trip today. Sonic switched from the right side of his jaw to the left to clean the rest of his teeth, but instead, he yanked the toothbrush out from his mouth and yelped in pain. Not understanding why his left cheek decided to torture him now of all times, Sonic swung the mirror door shut and looked at himself for the first time today.

He understood how the massive crack in the mirror formed, but how did he earn a purple-yet large-bruise on the side of the face? The hedgehog stared at the injury and tried to see if there were any markings to clue him in on what had happened, but the bruise was so swollen that his cheek looked nearly deformed.

"-man… whatever happened must've been pretty bad," said the speedster as he touched the left side of his visage ever so lightly. Then, as he turned his left check further in the mirror, he saw it-one small, but a completely noticeable hole on the corner of his muzzle.

"Welp, I guess my trip will have to be canceled for I have to go see a doctor now…"

Sighing, the blue hedgehog cautiously finished his hygienic routine. While he was combing down his dismantled quills, Sonic heard a loud clatter of pans from down the hall-which was outside his room. Placing the comb down gently on the sink, the möbian quietly came out of the bathroom and into his room. With his sensitive ears perked up and his frame on guard, the famous hedgie approached the exit of the bedroom and cracked the door open just enough for him to see that the hallway was clear. Now knowing that the hallway was safe, Sonic walked into the corridor and took a right towards the living room.

Every step he took raised the pace of his pulse, but once he got there it was as if his heart became the reverberating bass for his own heaving breathing. Just like the corridor, of which he came from, the living room was filled with nothing but furniture. Blue quills deflated as the hedgehog unconsciously sighed…

"Heh ha-ha... get it together, Sonic," whispered the blue blur while trying to comfort himself by straining a smile and rubbing his quills down.

Turning around, he was about to head back to his bed but froze when he caught sight of a figure in the kitchen. The speedster-with his muzzle nearly the same color as his sclera-watched as the being began to move towards the knife rack. Just before it grabbed one of the weapons, a white fog or cloud of some sort blocked Sonic's view of whatever _it_ was…

Suddenly, the hedgehog leaned forward and supported himself on a couch with his left hand; his other hand took care of the throbbing on his right temple-or at least tried to…

The _being_ was notified of another presence in the living room-not by the barely audible hissing that came out of Sonic's mouth, but by the squeaking of the furniture that Sonic moved.

"Sonic?"

As the lights were turned on by the being, two white-tipped tails moved out of the way to reveal said person's closest friend, Tails. The fur of the fox rose once he took in his best friend's appearance.

"Sonic?!"

The kitsune left the cooking knife on the counter and ran to help aid his big brother; putting his shoulder underneath the elder, Tails lead him to the same chair that Amy-literally-feed him in.

Once he sat down, the blue blur held his head up against his hands, which were now supported by the table in front of him. The two-tailed fox sat across from him and waited almost 3 minutes until Sonic's shoulders lowered steadily-yet his eyes were still closed.

Seeing that his older brother was now feeling a bit better, he determined that now would be the best time to ask questions.

"Sonic, what just happened? You didn't look too good…"

Removing his hands from his face, Sonic placed his chin right on his crossed arms, which were on the table.

"I have no idea Tails… in fact, I don't remember anything past 10 pm," said the hedgehog, who was making eye-contact with Tails.

"Wait, so you don't remember anything from last night? Wow, whatever Charmy mixed into the fruit punch must have been something strong," commented the shocked kitsune.

"The way you said that somehow makes me scared to hear whatever happened," replied the blue blur, who was silently making a note to himself to get back at the bee someday.

Sonic waited to hear the story that-considering how gossipy his group of friends were-would most likely be told for weeks, but all he received was a cringing smile making his heart sink even more. Even though he was 110% sure this would further ruin his day, he had to know...

"Okay… hit me with every detail, Tails…"

"Alright then, but I'll have to cook while I re-cap you on what your royal sushi god did last night," replied the mechanic, who got up and walked towards the knife he left on the counter.

"R-royal what?"

"You'll understand soon," said the kitsune, who began to slice up some strawberries.

"I think it was right after Amy gave you her homemade tacos that you drank a glass or two…"

****Flashback****

"Alright, now that you are feed-my Soniku-I need to bring Cream back home-I hope Vanilla doesn't mind her coming home this late. Bye my dear Soniku," giggled the pink hedgehog, who blew a kiss to her _boyfriend._ Sonic cringed in his seat in response while Amy dragged the begging rabbit out of the party.

On the exact second that his _girlfriend_ walked out the door-he sped to the fruit punch bowl, and, in an effort to cancel out the flavor of burnt sweaty socks, he chugged down the entire bowl.

"HEY," yelled the now fuming hot-head, who held two cups in his hands.

"What happened to serving your guests first?!"

The chugging hedgie finally finished off the entire juice and, with both hands, put the bowl back where it had been.

"R-right…" replied Sonic as he began to head towards the basement for more drinks but stumbled after three steps.

"Whoa!"

The red echidna quickly placed the cups on the table and grabbed his younger annoying friend before the blue hedgehog's face met the ground.

"Sonic? You alright?"

Knuckles, who was now holding his pal by the shoulder, straightened the wobbly blue jellybean up until the loaf of bread made eye contact with the echidna.

"Sonic?"

"Yeah, I'm fine A~~~," mumbled the loopy hedgie, who slipped from his red friend's grasp and proceeded to get more juice.

"Uhm… Sonic, maybe you should sit down for a minute… I think someone must've sprinkled some magic in that bowl…"

Concerned for his pestie pal-Knuckles tried to guide the now empowered speedster to the couch, but-of course- Sonic would not let him do so without defiance… Typical…

"-Nonsense Knuckless! I don't feel a tthhing, so don't worry-sit down and relax while I go get some more juice for you guyss!"

Before the guardian of the Master Emerald could tackle Sonic to the ground, the hedgie bolted to the basement door and nearly crashed into the wall.

"...Okay then…"

Like a vegetable, the older möbian stood there wondering whether he should go check up on his friend or simply walk away from this weirdness. The tired guardian ended up taking the second option due to the fact that he already lost a sufficient amount of brain cells tonight.

The echidna took not even a step before the door behind him turned into wood chips. Turning around, the echidna was met by a blue spiky ball that uncurled itself in front of the basement door. Knuckles' jaw dropped open like a fish does out of the water. It was not what the hedgehog _did_ that blew the guardian's mind, no, it was what Sonic was _wearing_ …

"Why isss it that vvvillianzz call me a rat when clearly I'm A _HEDGGGEHOG_ ," fumed the blue rodent, shaking his long taped tail in order to attract attention to it.

"Thisss iss whot a rat looksss like!"

Sonic, with a party hat attached to his muzzle, crouched down on the floor and started squeaking. Then he went silent and flopped onto his right side pretending to die as he flung chocolate near his tail.

Adjusting his left pupil, which had gone out of its original position, Knuckles walked up to the needle-nose hedgie and stood him up straight-or at least tried to. Sonic kept sagging in the hands of his red rival as he mumbled something to the red-head.

"Uhmm… I couldn't hear you," responded Knuckles as he brought Sonic closer to his ear.

"My queen… SSShoow me de waee," whispered the hedgie into the eardrums of the echidna.

"What in Chaos ar-"

The sentence was cut short when a lovely kiss was planted on his right cheek… Defreezing, the guardian's flaming eyes snapped onto the hedgehog-who began to spastically make clicking noises…

-Somewhere else in the party-

The glowing gloves of a white Möbian placed a plate into the kitchen sink. Turning around with satisfaction from not having to clean anything, the albino hedgie made a beeline for the empty couch in the living room. His journey, however, paused when a loud thump followed by a yell caught his attention.

Turning around, the yellow-eyed möbian barely dodged out of harm's way as an object flew directly above him. Silver uneasily stood up from the ground and scanned the area where the object must have landed. He almost missed the cobalt blue body within the blue bean bag of the living room. Had it not been for the red shoes that-literally-stuck out from the bean bag, Silver would not have seen Sonic.

Teal tipped boots approached the torn plastic bag where the blue blur laid in a scorpion position.

"Uhhh, er… Sonic?"

Silver the Hedgehog starred dumbfoundedly at his strange companion as a moan leaked through the plastic cover of the bean bag. Unsure if he should even lay a finger on him, Silver rose his right hand-covering his view of the hedgehog in front of him. A mist of turquoise seeped out of the albino möbian's hand while-at the same time-circumscribing the lump of spines before him. The hedgehog of the future brought the hedgehog of the present to the closest couch and gently lowered the hero of Möbius onto the furniture.

From the looks of Sonic's visage, Silver realized he was knocked out. The best thing to do now was to get Sonic's best friend, Tails.

After quickly being retrieved, the kitsune found his elder brother awake and rolling on the floor.

"...Why," inquired the fox as he watched his caregiver's _wae of de life…_

"..."

The hedgie with the fan-like hairdo stayed silent as he watched the rolling möbian before him sing. Although Sonic's voice could make even the angels of heaven fall in love with him, the cobalt speedster-after a while of singing on tune-began to completely sing off tune. Then the blue blur abruptly cut his singing off, sat up, and began to yell at the two of them.

"HOLD I the posssition as the sssushi GOD of SSShAMAR, and everyone… ssstop sssinking FOR NOW!"

To Silver and Tails' relief, the red-cheeked blue boy decided to pass out right then and there. A moment of silence passed...

"...I'll get the first aid kit-you take him to his room," instructed the tired fox to the brain-dead möbian. Silver did as he was told while the surrounding audience broke out into laughter.

****End Of Flashback****

The kitsune-interested in what the reaction of his older brother would be-watched Sonic intently as he placed his brother's breakfast on the table, yet all the azul hero did was blink slowly…

"...They're never going to let this down will they?"

"Nope," chuckled the younger brother.

Looking down at his breakfast, the speed demon swallowed his embarrassment before he swallowed the crepes on his plate. With the conversation done, the fox decided to get to his work for the day.

"Welp, I'm going to be in the workshop for the rest of the day. If you need me for anything you'll know where to find me," waved the two-tailed fox as he got out of the kitchen.

"Wait, but aren't you going to eat, bro," muffled the hedgehog with a mouth full of crepes.

"Nah, I already ate a while ago."

"Mmk, thanks for the breakfast Tails!"

"Your welcome!"

Tails walked towards the garage door and was about to open it when the realization of something hit him.

He left his tools in his bedroom.

Sonic had always scolded him for leaving his tools in his bedroom ever since the tool-nearly-going-up-main street incident. It was only a mistake that Tails had left one of his tools in the hallway…

Heading to his room, the yellow möbian passed his blue companion's room but sidetracked after having a glimpse of the blue blur's room…

Eyebrows almost sprung off of his face as he entered the now spotless room…

' _When did even clean his room?! I've never seen it this clean before…'_ thought the kitsune as his left foot planted itself onto the green rug of Sonic's bedroom.

' _Did he do this after the party was over?'_

Tails looked towards the lamp that-for some lazy reason-Sonic never cleans, and surprisingly enough it was as clean as a whistle… The fox' eyes widened…

' _Sonic's a clean-freak drunk… who would've guessed...'_

The kitsune-knowing that Sonic's room will not be as clean as it was now for a long time-took in the scenery of his best friend's room. Every single thing was spotless… all except for a stack of tiny cards on the bedside table…

Tails-being a true clean freak he was-decided to finish up Sonic's mess. Grabbing the cards, Tails inspected them to see whether or not they were important…

' _Aren't these expired? Why does he still ha-'_

The kitsune's thoughts were cut off once his eyes laid upon the expiration date of the first coupon. Confused, the fox checked the rest of the coupons-they were not expired at all. In fact, the expiration date was a week from now… so why did Sonic li-

"Hey, Tails! I'm going to visit the Chao Garden after I see Dr. Quake-do you want anything?"

"No, I'm fine Sonic-just let me know what the results are," replied the two-tailed fox as he managed to place the coupons exactly in the position they were in when he had found them.

"Alright then, see ya later, bro," said the hedgie as he opened the exit door to their home.

"See ya, Sonic," said Tails as he waited for Sonic to leave.

Sure enough, the hedgehog left at lightning speeds-and when the fox heard the sound of the sound barrier die out in the distance, he went towards Sonic's closet and laid a hand upon the doorknob.

Twisting it, the doorknob was tugged at-which slightly opened the door…

* * *

 **Please, don't steal my work!**

 **If you make artwork of this please credit me and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


	5. Chapter 4: Subtle Sensation

**Chapter 4**

Subtle Sensation

* * *

The kitsune froze before opening the closet door.

This was Sonic's room, his brother's room… Sonic never pried into Tails' stuff-he had always respected the fox´ privacy…

Contemplating, the hedgehog's yellow companion stood there debating between respecting his brother's privacy or looking-out for his sibling's well-being…

****Mobotropolis****

It kills him-it murders his soul just to stay glued to a chair for what seems like eternity-even though it has only been five minutes. Yet five minutes was just enough for Möbius' blue hero to feel the constant, but subtle, twitch in his legs. What was worse, however, was the fact that the majority of the möbians in the waiting room were glancing-if not staring-at him. Sometimes it truly sucks to be famous.

Glancing at the clock to his left, Sonic was just about to have his final straw before his name echoed out from a petite young female wearing a teal shirt. As if dynamite exploded under the cushion of his chair, the blue hedgehog nearly caused a sonic-boom, and-if the crowd that he stirred-up around him were being honest-they were relieved that it did not happen.

Although he was filled with more relief than those around him, his previous mood before he came in began to settle back. His arms lowered to accompany his thighs, and his ears hugged his head. A disgruntled facade took over his features as he asked the nurse in front of him.

"So… are there going to be-"

"Nope, not today-if there were then we'd have called you beforehand," interrupted the nurse as she smiled at him. She always found it quite cute whenever Sonic would ask that particular question.

"That's good to hear," said the now deflating hedgie.

A few seconds passed by as they approached the check-up room when the nurse's light bulb went off.

"Oh, but today isn't a scheduled check-up is it?"

Sonic slowly swayed his head left and right to answer her question.

"Then I'm not exactly sure…"

Before the hedgehog could make a sharp turn towards where they had came from, the door to the check-up room swung open.

"Ah, hello there Sonic. It's been a while hasn't it?"

The hedgehog sheepishly smiled at the unamused duck as he re-positioned his body toward the doctor.

"Yeah, being kidnapped by Egghead for six months can really screw up schedules," replied the youth who scratched the back of his head…

"Yes. I am aware of that Sonic, and I'm more than grateful that you're alive-but you had a scheduled appointment a month before the war began," said Dr. Quack while folding his arms.

"Well… you see…"

The blue blur, dried of excuses, trailed off as his quills flattened. Sighing, the doctor excused the nurse and gestured for Sonic to come into the room. Closing the door behind him, Dr. Quack faced his patient.

"Sonic, I understand that your brother cares for you, but there is no need for you-nor Tails-to make scheduled check-ups. You both know that I visit you at Tails' house for those and that you two can always come in whenever. After all, heroes don't always come out of battles unscathed. Next time please remind Tails of this as not attending scheduled appointments blocks others from having one."

Sonic, who's inner child wanted to talk back, took in the lecture the doctor gave him.

"I'll make sure to remind him next time," nodded the hedgie.

"Good, now what brings you here today," said the doctor as he turned his back towards the youth in order to get his clipboard on his desk. Glancing at the vaccines section, Dr. Quack noticed two that were listed for today. Recalling the first time he met the hedgehog, he remembered how astonished he was to find out that the möbian who protected Green Hill Zone from the newfound villain-Dr. Robotnik, who now is referred as Dr. Eggman-was only a meer child. Many thought that they had switched the young hedgehog's doctor to Dr. Quack due to the previous doctor's death at the hands of Dr. Robotnik-even Sonic believed it-but the truth was that Sonic's previous doctor became somewhat of a fan of the speedster. In fact, he was caught tinkering with the hedgehog's blood samples claiming that he was simply checking for issues when really he was experimenting to figure out how Sonic was able to run so fast. The doctor figured that the answer laid in the amount of oxygen in Sonic's blood, but all he found was a lawsuit from the hospital and a new patient.

Then they chose him to be his primary doctor for chaos-knows-what. He was terrible with children and could hardly understand his own, so what on Möbius were they thinking when they assigned him to Sonic? Unlike in the movies, or in stories, the child never stopped being a hassle to deal with-even now as the doctor waited for the teenager's late reply.

"You know, for the fastest thing alive you're pretty slow when answering," chuckled the duck as the hedgie scoffed at his doctor.

Just when did he become so fond with the speedster? Did they assign him with the hedgehog because they knew this would happen?

"Hey! Even the fastest thing alive needs time to think too," protested the annoyed teen.

The duck settled down as he waited for the hedgie to speak up-which only took three seconds more for him to finally do so.

"So, this morning when I woke up to do my daily hygienic routine I found out that one of my friends punched me in the face," explained the hedgie as he turned his left cheek towards the doctor.

Dr. Quack was not surprised in the least-it was not the first time that he took care of a wound caused by Sonic's rough-housing. Dr. Quack gently grabbed his patient's bruised face as he turned it more to the right in order to see the wound.

"So who was it this time? Shadow, Silver, Blaze?"

"Funny how you didn't mention Knuckles first-he's always the rough one," snickered the blue blur as he tried to speak with the doctor's hands on his face.

The doctor rolled his eyes; of course it was the hot-head. Why did he not expect that? He had known about the echidna since Sonic first came into his office… his old age must be making him forget, or maybe his shifts are affecting him. Either way, it did not matter at the moment-right now he had a patient to patch up.

"Yes, but these days you have so many connections that counting the number of hair strands on my son's head is easier than counting the number of connections you have," replied the doctor.

"Well, someone knows their facts," smirked the blue möbian. The doctor let his patient's face go and, once again, picked-up the clipboard on his desk.

"How can I not if you're literally all over the news almost every week," answered Dr. Quack as he made notes on his patient's wound.

"What else is there?"

Surprised, the hedgehog was about to open his mouth, but the doctor cut him off before he was able to start.

"You wouldn't come in for a wound like most möbians would."

"Okay, you're really starting to freak me out doc…" said Sonic as he slightly leaned back a bit.

"Well, I've known you for most of your life-so sorry if that sounded freaky-but seeing as you would never come in for small wounds there has to be something else," simply stated the duck.

"Okay, mum."

Once again, the doctor rolled his eyes.

"So last night we had a party, and someone-who will eventually suffer the consequences-spiked the fruit punch with whatever-the-heck kind of substance. I'm guessing you know where this leads to."

Sighing for the umpteenth time since the hedgehog got here, the doctor approached the exit…

"Alright, I'll check if the C.A.T. scanner is being used right now. If it's not in use, I'll have you scanned in no time. For now just… don't do anything stupid while I check-got it?"

Now it was the hedgehog's turn to roll his eyes.

"Yes, mum."

"I'm serious, Sonic."

"Yeah, I won't do anything stupid, okay?"

Annoyed, the blue hero watched as his doctor closed the door behind himself. After a moment of silence, the hedgie began to twiddle his thumbs in an effort to try to stay entertained. Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into hours as he felt his thumbs fiddling in an agonizing rhythm with the clock above him. This is one of the reasons why he hated appointments…

Sonic got off the patient bed in an attempt to try and find another way to entertain himself when he suddenly bumped into a wheeled bedside-like table that emitted sounds of clinking metal. Curious, the speed demon kneeled down and opened the side of the wheeled furniture. What was inside was basic medical equipment; there were some that he had seen before and some that he was used to, but there was one that he had never seen-or maybe he just did not notice it before. Either way, the object was yanked out of its place. Sonic was not exactly the type of person to like tools like Tails or Eggman, but this was a pretty abnormal object to say the least…

What was even stranger were the instructions on the thing. Deciding why not, the blue blur rose the object in front of his face and stuck his tongue out…

"Alright Sonic, it looks like no one is-" spoke the doctor as he walked into his jolting patient. Dr. Quack instantly took the tool from the hands of the youth and placed it in a sink nearby.

"Did I not just tell you to not do anything stupid?!"

"I'm just surprised that you haven't expected that by now," smirked the annoyance.

As much as the doctor did not want to admit it, he should have expected Sonic to do just about anything to quench his boredom-even if it was dangerous. He really needed to go on vacation soon…

"Hey Doc, what was that thing anyway?"

"Sigh, I'll tell you along the way to the C.A.T. scanner-come on, let's go," replied the elder who exited the room with the younger one in toe.

"That was an extremely inexpensive medical equipment, and it is one of the only ones that we have here in the hospital. It's strange that you didn't recognize it seeing how Tails was the one who made it."

Dr. Quack's eyebrow rose in amusement after witnessing the hedgehog's face scrunch up in confusion.

"When did he ever invent that? And since when did he make people pay for his inventions? I thought he gave them for free."

"The first I do not know but the latter is because he couldn't afford the materials."

"What even is it?"

 _'The real question is how many inquires does he have,'_ wondered the duck as he sighed once more.

"It's a Chaos Quantification Device-CQD for sort-and it measures the amount of chaos energy one has."

 _'I bet if I went Super it'd break,'_ thought the smug hedgehog.

"Anyways, here we are."

Sonic walked in cautiously as he followed his doctor's lead. Dr. Quack was unamused…

"Alright Sonic, I'll need you to sit there while we prepare the C.A.T. scanner."

The duck expected the hedgehog to follow his instructions, but-of course-it was never that easy with the rebellious hedgie.

"You guys aren't gonna prod me with your special toys are you," questioned the uneasy hero as he looked around at the nurses walking in.

"No, Sonic, we don't need to use a needle on you for this-Tails managed to find a way to scan others without the need of an injection."

"So that explains the humongous ring…" replied Sonic as he pointed at the cat scanner as if it was not there before.

"Yes, now can you please take a set Mr. Hedgehog."

Sonic did not retaliate after hearing his last name being used by his primary doctor and sat down. As much as he wanted to keep his promise, however, Sonic instantly sprang from the seat and grabbed his arms in a shiver.

"Why are hospital beds always cold?!"

A collective sigh could be heard-all but from one doctor who threw daggers at the patient…

After a few moments of desperate persuasion, they finally were able to get the hyperactive möbian to relax enough without screwing up the pictures. Well… if you call strapping him down persuasion…

"Sonic, if you keep on pouting we won't be able to have a clear scan of your body-you need to relax for once," advised the yellow duck. In reply, Sonic merely did exactly what he was told not to do-but seeing how they had told him he would stay here for however long they needed him too, he complied.

The doctor felt a surge of relief that he did not know he needed, and began to finally take clear images.

Sonic, on the other hand, tried his best to distract himself with the humming of the machine he was in. It sounded a lot like how the chaos emeralds would hum-only slightly deeper. He never knew why but every time he encountered a chaos emerald he would hear the humming of chaos energy and would always feel some sort of connection… not the typical, cliché connection that a chaos user would hold-as he had that explained to him by Knuckles-but a connection that drew him in. Almost like he finally found where his home was-were he belonged... The funny thing is, he had no clue where and when he was able to listen to the soft but constant sounds of the chaos emeralds.

 _'Wait, since when do rings sound similar to chaos emeralds?'_

He found the answer to the left of where he laid-there inside the machine was a blue chaos emerald. However, judging by the sound and slightly lighter appearance of the chaos emerald it was probably a fake emerald with the purpose of storing energy. That would explain the deeper humm-

Sonic's thoughts were cut off when a sudden pressure was felt on the back of his head. It was almost as if there was a not-so-sharp dull blade seeping into the back of his head. With a yelp, the hedgehog jerked his head away from the gunnery-like seat and nearly hit his head against the giant ring. The only thing that saved him from doing so were the straps that kept him down.

****Mobotropolis Market****

"Tools section, tools section, tools se- geez why do they always change the aisles?!"

"May I help you Tails?"

The boy turned around to meet a Cheetah smiling at his frustration-she found it kind of cute.

"I'll never get used to others knowing my name," sighed the fox as the female teen looked at him with concern.

"Can you please show me where the tools section is?"

"Sure, right this way Tails."

After many aisles, and assumptions of where the section would be, they finally found the place.

"Sorry Tails, I'm new to this job and they just changed the place yesterday when I was out," said the girl who scratched the back of her head.

"It's alright, thank you for helping me find the place-they really shouldn't change the aisles you know."

"Well I hope you find what you're looking for Tails-say hi to Sonic for me," replied the Cheetah as she walked off to help another lost customer.

"Will do."

Turning around, the two-tailed fox entered the aisle with a smile plastered across his face. Every time he found himself in the presence of gadgets, tools, and machinery of this magnitude he always seemed to struggle to not examine everything. It is basically why he would only ever come into the tools area when Sonic would come because, if not, he was one-hundred and ten percent sure that he would camp here for the rest of his life. It might have been an impulsive move for him, but he could not wait for Sonic to come back from his appointment-especially with the impending moment in which Eggman would suddenly come back with revenge. It did not really surprise Tails that the scientist was still in hiding-after all, even an evil madman needed a break…

 _'It's only been a week since the war ended-it's not like he'll suddenly pop out from his hiding after losing almost ninety-nine percent of his fleet. That would be stupid,"_ thought the kitsune as he headed towards the next turn.

The smirk was taken off his face once he saw the last of the tool he was looking for in the hands of a purple bird. The kitsune sighed in frustration which turned into a wistful acceptance-he could always wait for the next shipment or try and see if another store had the same item. Deciding to just look at the other items around him, Tails walked towards an object that caught his attention.

Suddenly, the whole building shook as a certain someone crashed into the same area where Tails was. When the smoke and debris cleared the sidekick's eyes bulged out at what they laid upon. None other than Dr. Eggman floated above his recent destruction…

 _'I just had to jinx it didn't I,"_ mentally scolded the fox.

The Eggman did not seem to notice his sworn enemy's B.F.F. as he attempted to steal an expensive looking equipment off the shelf. His efforts were in vain as the two-tailed fox snatched what the doctor was reaching for.

"WHA-"

Tails, not having the patience to talk to the former dictator, simply placed the item back on the shelf and faced Eggman with his shoulders crossed.

"RRR-Why is it that no matter where I go I'm always followed by you Freedom Failures," exclaimed the annoyed doctor.

"Hey, I was here first Eggman! The last thing that I expected to see today was you!"

The purple bird watched as the two fought over who was the most annoyed. The male bird was about to leave when suddenly the tool he was carrying was taken.

"H-hey!"

"Fine! I'll just take this instead," snickered the Eggman while he ignored the bird in protest.

"Give it back Eggman!"

Said person looked at the fox with slight disbelief from the words that spilled out the kitsune-then the Eggman snickered…

"What makes you think that simple words will get me to surrender-I thought you knew better, Tails," taunted the human. The purple bird smirked in amusement at the response.

"Whoops, my bad-I just thought you knew how to speak," innocently replied the kitsune. The fox was surprised to hear that come out of his mouth-he was hanging out with Sonic too much…

The silently fuming scientist decided to make the situation less mocking by pointing his laser beam at the purple bird…

"ERRR! Laugh at this!"

The bird froze at the sound of the laser machine whirring to life as the fox began to spin his tails. Nearly clipping the kitsune's right ear, the laser nearly hit the two before Tails had tackled the bird. Instead, the laser ended up hitting a pole that supported the upper level, and-as the second floor came crashing down-the two-tailed möbian grabbed the bird by the arm to drag him under a nearby table.

****Back at the Hospital****

"We're not your enemies, Sonic! We're only trying to make sure that you stay healthy," yelled one of the nurses pinning said-person's-name down.

"IDON'TCARE! LETMEGO! I'MNOTDUEFORANOTHERONEOFTHOSE'TILNEXTYEAR," exclaimed the panicked hedgehog.

To the other nurses' surprise, Dr. Quack completely understood what the speedster was saying.

"No, you can't wait any longer for these vaccines! Otherwise, you'll run the risk of Dropped Head Syndrome! You won't be able to defeat Dr. Eggman with your eyes to the ground!"

"-WATCH ME," shouted the hedgehog as he bit the nearest nurse on the arm and spiked his quills up.

The doctor sighed as he watched the scene unfold in front of him-how can the world's number one hero be so scared of needles? It was simply ridiculous to the doctor-although it did make sense for a phobia of needles to suddenly form after having someone constantly trying to stab you with spikes over the years… The only thing that confused him on what was happening now was the fact that the hedgehog was in a panic before the vaccines showed up. Now that he thought about it, he did remember seeing the heart monitor spike up a bit during the hedgehog's C.A.T scan along with his frantic display of movements when they were nearly done… Dr. Quack just assumed that it was just Sonic being Sonic-a hyperactive, stir crazy speedster.

 _'Well, whatever liquid was spiked in the drink by that friend of his must've been pretty potent…'_ thought the doctor as he observed the hedgie nearly kicking a male nurse in the spot. As much as he hated doing this to Sonic, he really left him with no other choice. The doctor simply blinked-too sick of sighing once again-and headed towards his personal phone. Dr. Quack dialed and waited for the voice on the other side of the line to pick up as he watched a nurse fly across the room. The tone of the phone ringing stopped when a young female voice spoke…

"Again?"

"Again," said the doctor as he dodged a chair.

"Okay, I'll be right over," said the voice.

No later after the phone hanged up-the girl knocked the door down to the check-up room with her hammer. The blue nutcase transformed into a still-life bread once he saw her, and he gave into the blazing eyes that threatened him something else if he did not cooperate. Defeated, the blue one crossed his arms to mirror his legs and pouted in sad frustration.

The nurses, however, quickly made the effort to inject the vaccines before he decided to take on what Amy had threatened him with. A loud enough yelp was heard as four shots were given to him. Two were booster shots. The blue hedgie looked up to see his pink friend talking to the yellow doctor-he was about to get up when a sudden wave of fatigue came over him. He tried to get up, but his body decided that the hospital bed below him was a much more comfortable spot. Before he dozed off he thought he heard someone whisper in his ear…

"Hello…"

****Character Memory****

Run…

All he could do was run…

Run and not look back because if he did… if they found him-

The youth-unable to see through his own blurry vision-hit his shoulder against one of the trees in front of him. Making a one-eighty spin, the child plummeted to the ground with his left knee. Pain wracked his body like a tidal wave breaking through a surge barrier, but the feeling was quickly forgotten by the panicked child as he glanced towards the location in which he came from.

The location that was so familiar, so peaceful and loving… his home… their destruction.

Their stark red flames that scarred the quiet, night blue sky. Flames that dimmed the stars above and left nothing but the ashes of his-

Drenching his gloves as he wiped his face, the young möbian scrambled onto his feet and ran further away, nearly slipping on the ice beneath him.

Why were they doing this?! What did they do wrong?! His family could not be de- no, they had to be alive… He did not know what he would do without- he should have done something-anything to protect them… With his skills-his abilities-HE COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING! But yet…

The child slowed to a stop and sunk to the ice cold ground against a snow bank. The sound of guilt, of a broken heart, escaped his chapped lips and increased as the forest around him screamed back at him. Once the echoes faded, and nothing more but a raspy voice was heard, the youth froze realizing his mistake.

He gave out his location… he could hear them coming-hear their weapons clinking in the distance…

But… what was this pressure-this feeling-he had? His muscles felt too… weak to move, but he could not blame them-neither did he want to move… What was there left to move for?

Their voices were so loud now that he could barely hear the river behind him, but there was another voice. A voice closer to him than the others were-a voice that whispered in his ear.

"Don't let our death be in vain…"

Yet the child just sat there, staring at the snowflakes that gently fell from the sky. He did not want to be alone-he wanted this… wanted his family back.

But he also wanted revenge…

****End of Memory****

* * *

 **Please, don't steal my work!**

 **If you make artwork of this please credit me and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


	6. Chapter 5: Set Foundations

**Chapter 5**

Set Foundations

* * *

8:42 am…

Either the arrows on his watch were skewed or he just spent nearly three hours of his life standing in front of the Mystic Ruins Market. He was pretty sure it was the latter, and as a delightful bonus it began to rain… and hard. Out of all the other stores, Shadow had to pick the one without a patio cover… great…

The temptation to just go home and play video-games started to kick in again, but the Rookie submerged the thought back into his subconsciousness for the twentieth time this morning. He knew he could simply leave-heck, he had the right to-but if he did Sonic's opposite would surely pelt him and turn him into one of his gun covers. The shuddering Rookie removed his glasses-there was no point in keeping them on in the rain if all you could see were distorted images of the world around you.

What a great Saturday this was turning out to be…

As if anything could not get any worse, he was grabbed into a headlock from behind. The wolf froze-considering the tight grip, the being behind him was intending to either make him pass out or kill him. Just when the red wolf was about to jab his arm into the enemy, he heard a low voice.

"Do it and I _will_ kill you."

' _Wait…'_

The Rookie lowered his arm while the _enemy_ released him. Of course, it was Shadow-what an amazing way to greet someone thought the red wolf as he turned around to face him.

The hedgehog simply crossed his arms and glared at him.

"G.U.N. had unexpectedly needed me this morning."

' _He could've at least called me to let me know…'_ thought the red one as he frowned a bit.

"I am… sorry for making you wait here…" apologized the G.U.N. agent as he moved his hands to the back of his body to twiddle with them.

Sonic's buddy rose two eyebrows and almost had his mouth drop open-he was getting an apology from Shadow?! Of all the things he expected, this was definitely not one of them. He could not help himself but stare at the hybrid…

Shadow looked away in uncomfortness-man, why is it that whenever he showed his genuine feelings that they were shot down by expressions of shock?! He was a living breathing sentient being too, but these were the times that made him think otherwise. That made him feel more like a robot if anything.

Without looking, the black hedgehog replied, "I'll just get going… you can do whatever you want."

Maybe all the time that he spent with… her, maybe all the fun they had when he was young was not enough to make him be anything but a creation of destruction. Perhaps it was pointless to try and be like the others… to not be fake.

A hand was placed on the ebony hedgehog's shoulder, but he instantly moved his shoulder away from the hand.

He did not want to be the Ultimate Life Form.

The Rookie walked in front of him, and the hedgehog rose his slightly lowered head to look at the sheepishly smiling red möbian.

He just wanted to be like _them_.

He watched as the wolf turned around and entered the building before them. With a bit of a frown, the red-striped alien hybrid slowly followed the wolf into the store.

****Tails' House****

"Wow, they really dosed him with a lot of that tranquilizer stuff," stated a pink hedgehog as she observed the still-life form of Möbius' hero.

"I mean, I don't blame them for injecting two shots of benzodiazepines-I just didn't expect it to last four days…" replied Tails.

"Binza- what?"

"It's just another word for the drugs in the tranquilizers that were given to him…"

"Oh…"

Both the female hedgehog and the male fox closed the door to Sonic's room as they walked back to the living room. Amy sat down in front of the TV where the news feed of a partially destroyed store in Mobotropolis was seen. It was simply news about the new renovations that they were adding to the store-just another way to get back the customers that they lost four days ago. You would think that after years of Dr. Eggman's reign that people would ignore the safety of the places that they visited-after all, the mad scientist crashed into practically every building by now…

After finishing up with the news of the renovations, the news-reporters began to roll the footage of what had happened in the store on Monday. The footage was from one of the corner cameras in the store. Amy tuned into what the reporter was saying in her recap.

"-Fortunately, one of Möbius' well-known heroes-Tails Miles Prower-was there looking for tools when the attack happened. As you can see here-"

A red circle encompassed a purple bird within the same aisle as the young hero.

"-a citizen was also in the range of the attack, but with Prower's help-"

The footage proceeded to show what had happened when the doctor crashed into the store-then it clipped to when Tails pushed the bird underneath one of the tables.

"-no one was hurt," said the news-reporter with a smile that then turned into a serious flat line.

"However, with the so-soon appearance of Dr. Eggman, one can expect an oncoming scheme of his to play out. The only thing we don't know is what… Back to you Xavier."

"Thank you Rachael. Speaking of our heroes, where was Sonic The Hedgehog during the attack on Monday? Well, intell from one of the patients at New Mobotropolis' Tommy Turtle Memorial Hospital informed us that Möbius' number one hero was at a show-up appointment which raises questions. Is Möbius' hero in peek health or is there something wrong?"

Amy rolled her eyes-news reporters would do anything to get their hands on a story that could hit headlines these days. Even if it was over dramatic…

"We tried getting an answer from his primary doctor, but as you can see from this footage-"

A footage of a reporter chasing Sonic's doctor-Dr. Quack-was seen.

" _Dr. Quack! Dr. Quack! What can you say about Sonic The Hedgehog's condition?"_

" _Haven't you heard about the patient's privacy act,"_ inquired the annoyed and frustrated doctor as he looked for his car keys in his wallet.

" _Will he still be able to protect M_ ö _bius?"_

Flabbergasted, the yellow duck's annoyance turned into slight anger, " _Of course he'll still be able to protec-"_

" _What did you think when Sonic The Hedgehog was presumed dead a few months back?"_

There was a moment of silence as the doctor stared coldly at the reporter off camera…

" _No comment,"_ growled the doctor. He knew where they were getting to with that question. The reporters kept bombarding him with more questions, but he turned around and entered his car in angry silence.

"-we received nothing," finished Xavier who was narrating the news.

At this point Amy was fuming from the ears-sure she followed him, asked him a few personal things, but they were basically boyfriend and girlfriend. Even if it was not established. To hear that other people were doing this to Sonic, however, that was something she could _not_ let slide. Out of rage, she stood from the couch and summoned her hammer… She was going to have a word with this Xavier and his crew-but just as she was about to head out the door, Tails stepped in her way.

"ERR, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY TAILS! I have a few _words_ to share with this Xavier!"

"Amy, I really don't think-"

The young girl pushed the fox aside but not too harshly as he was her friend.

"AMY! Just hear me out on this-I don't think it's a good idea! You'll just be adding fuel to the flames," exclaimed the kitsune.

"Then so be it!"

"Seriously, Amy! Sonic won't like it! You know how he is with that type of attention!"

The pink hedgie's foot stopped before it exited out of the front door. She turned around gripping her hammer to death-as if it was a living thing-and held her stance. Her emotions urged her to proceed with the… _persuading,_ but deep down she knew that Tails was right. Sonic, as much as many thought of him as an attention-hog, really would not like this sort of attention… this drama. He was definitely a show-off, but when it came to things like this he was gone before you could say chili-dog…

"Alright…" replied the now defeated pink möbian. Sonic's B.F.F. sighed in relief.

"But when he wakes up we're having a conversation about when he should and shouldn't go to the hospital."

"I think he already had that conversation with Dr. Quack… speaking of which. What are we going to do now that the whole world-including Dr. Eggman-knows who Sonic's primary doctor is?"

Amy sighed…

"How did they even know he was his primary doctor in the first place?!"

"That does raise some suspicions… alright, how about this? You head to the hospital to make sure that Dr. Quack is okay while I go talk to the people at the news station to see if they can give me some information," suggested Tails.

"Why can't I go to the news station," questioned Amy as she crossed her arms in frustration.

"Because even though I trust you to not pound them into the ground, I think that it'll be better if you protected Dr. Quack in case he gets attacked. As much as I hate to admit it, you're stronger than I am when it comes to fighting," dumbly smiled the fox.

The hedgehog, who appreciated the praise-since not many guys would say that- nodded her head in agreement to the plan.

"Okay, but who is going to keep an eye on Sonic?"

The fox felt like something hit his head as he forgot to think about that. Suddenly, the doorbell went off and their heads rose to the sound. They both looked at each other in confusion as they were not expecting company nor any paparazzi since no one but them knew where Sonic was. Silently, the pink möbian decided to go see who it was. Tails watched as she opened the door with slight hostility in her posture.

"Hi, what can I help you with?"

"Hi, just wanted to see if Tails Miles Prower was here…"

Amy glanced at the kitsune behind her and was met by a perplexed expression.

"Uh, why do you need to know," asked the defensive hedgehog-she was not going to let any of her friends get hurt in any way shape or form.

"I wanted to give him my thanks from Monday-I didn't get a chance to since he went after Eggman right after he saved me…" replied the purple bird.

"Ohhh, you're the person he saved-" Amy smiled as she opened the door to show a rather embarrassed kitsune. She always did find it adorable whenever the fox would be uncomfortable with compliments for his good deeds.

The purple bird walked into the invitation and pulled his hand out. Tails shook it with an awkward smile plastered across his face.

"Thank you for saving my life back there," sincerely stated the bird.

"No problem-it's in the job description after all."

Amy rolled her eyes again for the second time this morning-out of all the things he could have said he choose to say that…

"My name is Meltslisi, but people just call me Melts for short," introduced the purple bird as he let go of Tails' hand.

"Wow, what a very unique name! What does is derived from," asked Tails.

"Tails," exclaimed the pink hedgehog. The fox cringed realizing his mistake as the bird looked on in amusement.

"It's alright-a lot of people ask that question anyways. My mother wanted a name close to mistletoe since I was born eight days after Christmas, but my father wanted something like Meginnis so they combined both of the names," smirked the purple bird.

"Well it's nice to meet you again Miltles-er Melts," replied Tails with Amy nodding in agreement in the back.

"Not as nice as meeting two of the most well-known heroes of Möbius," sniggered the bird. Tails felt a bit uneasy at the comment-being famous gets pretty awkward at times and he really did not want this confrontation to turn out to be one of those fanatic moments. Amy noticed Tails' expression and knew what he was thinking.

"Anyways, we really appreciate the effort to thank one of us back, but we really need to get going on a mission and we have still have yet to find someone to help us with something…" responded Amy.

"Oh, if you need help I'm always willing to repay! It's the least I can do after being saved by you Tails," said the purple bird as he turned to face the kitsune with the determination to help.

"Uhh," Tails was the exact opposite of Sonic-he never did like that much attention. Which is why he was grateful when Amy barged in between them.

"No, it's alright-we'll have one of our frie-" the female tried to assure but her thoughts trailed off as she noticed something on the TV. There was a broadcast of what appeared to be Eggman sending machines inside of a house, and on the mailbox of the house, it read _The Quack Family_.

"Amy we have to go there right now! Who knows if they already found him," worried the kitsune. The fox began to sprint to his plane as he called out, "I'll have the Tornado ready-you tell Melts what he needs to do!"

"But-"

"We don't have time to find someone," claimed the fox as he took a turn into his garage. Amy complied as she began to tell the purple bird what he needed to do.

"Alright, we're trusting you to keep an eye on…" Amy held her breath anticipating an explosive reaction, "Sonic, he's in his room on the left side of the corridor," instructed the pink hedgehog as she wrote numbers on a pink slip of paper-ignoring any possible reaction.

"He's unconscious so don't try to poke him with a stick or anything. If anything happens call me at this number," she said as she handed him the paper.

The purple bird took the paper with slight hesitation. Then Amy pointed a finger at him in a threatening way-her eyes narrow and her head low.

" _Don't_ use this as an opportunity to get the news reporters in on this, nor do I want you telling anyone else. Tails has his lines under a detective security system, so don't do any crazy moves," threatened the blue hedgehog's _girlfriend._

The purple bird's eyes were wide open and as the hedgehog was called into the garage he turned the TV off. He watched as the duo flew off into sky in the direction of the attack. Melts wondered if she was serious or if she was just playing him, so he decided that now would be a great time to check up on Möbius' number one hero.

Quietly, the bird prodded his head into the supposed room of the famous hedgehog, and sure enough, he was there underneath a light white cover. From the looks of it, he was 110% out cold among the many pillows that they placed around him. Did they really think that he would toss and turn in such a deep slumber such as this?

Melts approached the most famous person of their era but paused when an expression etched on Sonic's face for a second. The purple bird closed the gap between himself and the bed in order to check the hedgehog, but as he did the expression re-appeared and stayed. The blue being seemed in pain-almost as if he was waking up or something-so Melts decided to go against Amy's first rule.

He poked him.

****Dream****

Blue and white shoes pounded the ground in sync with the silent huffs of the runner wearing them. He was only seven, but for his species he was exceptional. He was fast enough to compete with almost everyone-all except for the champion of Green Hill Zone, Ronnie The Rabbit. A cry of defeat rung out of his throat as the ten-year-old dark grey-brown rabbit passed him without a sweat. The brown hedgie slowed down to a stop and kneeled, barely able to keep up straight. Appearing almost out of nowhere, the rabbit stood in front of him with a smirk on his face.

"Admit it, Maurice, there's nothing within your genes that can help you win against me! You're a _hedgehog_ , I'm a _rabbit-_ what makes you believe that you even stand a chance" snorted Ronnie as he kicked the hedgie in the stomach.

Maurice landed on his face, unable to get up when the rabbit began to laugh.

"Hey, look on the bright side, Maurice. At least **you're more than the rest** **of them** losers," sniggered the rabbit as he kicked dirt in his face.

"But that doesn't mean your any better than me and my species," chuckled the rabbit.

The rabbit bolted in the direction he had come from, kicking more dirt into the face of the coughing hedgehog.

He recalled the first time he met Ronnie. It was only a year ago, but-with all the teasing and remarks he had received over the short period of time-it felt like decades ago. All he wanted then was to be friends with the guy-the fastest thing alive as they call him-but Ronnie simply laughed at his admiration for him. In front of everyone, he claimed that he was too slow to be his friend… that Maurice was not cool enough like himself. It stung. It had been quite painful to be told that in front of everyone from someone you considered… or still consider… your idol. Since then he had been practicing even harder than he did before, yet Maurice was still almost close to nothing in the eyes of the rabbit. And the worse part was that the good qualities of the rabbit reminded him so much of his older brother...

Sighing, the brown möbian sat up on his legs and coughed the remaining of the dirt out of his lungs. Maybe he was right… maybe he was **just chasing an illusion** after all…

Looking down to the ground beneath him, he noticed something dark and wet in the dirt. Was he sweating that much? Checking to see how drenched he was with his right hand, which he was, he realized that the wet spot on the ground had been blood. His blood.

Why? Why now? He had been so strong even before he met his idol-even when all of his folks had died-so why were his eyes betraying him now of all times? Droplets began to accompany the dry blood on the ground almost as if they were family visiting their departed son. But more droplets came from further above, and-before he knew it-the red stain on the ground was **alone** amongst the now wet ground.

Picking himself up, Maurice glanced at the setting sun that had been above his head for the entire race with Ronnie. Even the sun had betrayed him…

Deciding that now would be the best time for him to find somewhere safe for the night before the weather got too dangerous, Maurice began to ru-walk deeper into the forest. **Into the darkness.** It was not long until the sun left him and the moon became his sole company for the stormy night. The wind began to pick up as the hours went by, but the hedgehog merely pushed on-even if he did not know where he was going. Covering his face with his arms, Maurice tried to enter a cave that appeared in front of him, but just when he was about to enter it something metallic and heavy shoved him to the side. He fell into a hole nearby in the ground and thought he had heard someone shout after him, but the minute he entered the hole he had hit his head. Everything became black.

When he came to, he found himself within a labyrinth of stalagmites and stalactites. Some were covered in an ice-like substance while others were plain rock, but what really intrigued him was the one perfectly shaped ruby emerald on the ground… He did not know any better, but he thought he saw it glowing-so he approached it. Millions of questions were running through his foggy mind-where did it come from? Where even was he? Why was it glowing? **What was a ruby so perfect doing amongst other non-perfect crystals?** Why was it… humming? And why did it sound so… familiar? He had never encountered something like this before in all his life…

The young hedgehog kneeled down next to it to observe the gem. It was not like anything he had ever seen before, and yet he felt like he heard it calling out to him before…

"Okay, I am definitely going insane aren't I," chuckled the brown möbian.

"No you're not- **you just don't know your place in the world yet** ," replied a low voice that startled the youth.

Not wanting to sound like an idiot, Maurice stayed silent and watched his surroundings. Even though he took a complete 360 turn he could not find the source of the voice…

"You're looking in the wrong spot," echoed the voice that emitted from the emerald.

The young hedgehog turned with wide eyes towards the gem on the floor.

"You're… in there," the astonished möbian questioned as he slowly pointed a finger towards the now darker emerald. He thought he saw some black in the gem but quickly ignored it as another inquiry hit his thoughts.

"W-why do you sound so different?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, I... I've never met you before but… you don't sound the same?"

At this point, Maurice did not even know what was coming out of his mouth. He was about to open his mouth again but a beam of light hit his eyes. Looking up, he found that the sun had, once again, come out and was now greeting him through the hole above him… Almost as if it was telling him to get out of there…

He felt something sink within him-for what, he did not know…

A few seconds went by as he thought of what to say next...

"...Well, I guess I'll see you around then," blurted the hedgie. Funny how he became uncomfortable now and not when the gem first spoke to him.

"Stay…"

Blue and white shoes stopped at the new voice that came from the gem… It sounded more like what he had heard before-what was familiar to him.

"Please, stay…" but where and when did he hear it from he could not remember…

"Alright," but he was willing to find out.

He stayed there, sitting, silently staring at the emerald for what seemed like seconds but was really hours. He felt strangely at home-not like his home where he and his folks used to live, but… home.

"Hello! Hedgehog! Are you there," someone was looking for him… but who?

"Please, don't be afraid! I just wanted to apologize and see if you were okay! I didn't mean to hit you,"

It was the person that had shoved him into the hole last night… The young child stood from his position. It sounded like the person was sincerely worried-if he could somehow get up to the ground-

"Stay."

The youthful face of the hedgehog turned back towards the emerald on the ground. It truly was tempting to stay with the… being… but he needed to confront the person above him to let him know he was alright. Plus, he wanted to know what the heck had pushed him into the hole.

"Don't worry I'll be right back. I just need to-"

"No."

The deep voice was back again, but this time it sounded a bit more menacing. Above them, Maurice herd the person.

"Please, my name is Ovi Kintober. I am merely an ecological scientist. I just need to know if you are okay…" almost begged the doctor.

Maurice took a second to contemplate whether to stay or not, but he quickly went back to his original decision.

"It'll just be a second," insisted Maurice. When there were no more replies, the hedgehog began to walk further toward the exit above.

" **They don't need you, Sonic** ," cautioned the dark voice.

The confused yet shocked child was about to say something in return, but he somehow found himself right back next to the gem on the ground-mere inches from it.

"How-"

" **They'll be afraid of you** ," continued the voice.

"Why would he be afraid of me? Don't you hear him? He's worried for me…" he argued back.

"Yes, but **at least not now**."

The möbian could hear the doctor's calls getting farther and farther away. Desperate, the hedgehog ran towards the exit again. If that voice will not let him go because he will not listen, then neither will he.

Yet it was all in vain as the hole above him closed off-leaving him in the pitch black cave. The ruby was the only emitting light source in the entire area, and even then it was not so bright. Without anywhere else to go the child slowly walked back to the being...beings?

"Why did you do that?!"

"Do what," questioned the slightly chipper deep voice.

"Close off the only entrance to this cave!"

" **This is where you belong, here… with me."**

"But I don't want to be in the dark," exclaimed the hedgie with his ears folded back and a look of concern as he stared out into the dark.

"You're silly," giggled the deep voice that echoed within the cave.

The hedgehog thought he had heard something move within the cave and, in fear, snapped back at the being.

"I AM NOT!"

Maurice's rage was cut short as a black clawed hand shot out from the now black and dark-red emerald and it snatched his right arm violently.

"Ohh, you're so silly… you see-," calmly stated the deep voice as the hand dug into the whimpering child's arm. As the child thrashed his arm in a vain attempt to escape, the being's arm began to leak its black covering. Yet the hedgehog did not have enough time to see what it would become as he heard a sentence whispered in his ears.

" **The darkness is inside you**."

****Back At Tails' House****

The purple bird staggered back when Möbius' savior shot open his eyes and buried himself further into the bed full of pillows out of surprise. Melts stood there staring at the hedgie who kept staring at the ceiling. It was almost as if the bird was looking at a statue…

Melts approached Sonic with caution, and-finally-he was looking from above where the hedgie laid. Even though Sonic was practically looking directly at the bird with his hazy eyes-it did not seem that the hedgehog knew what was happening. The bird observed his quills as they slightly rose either out of fear… or something else. Just when Melts was about to back out, Sonic sprung to a sitting position-or at least he tried to. What he ended up doing instead was hitting his head against the bird's own…

"AAOOWW-," cried out Sonic as he clutched his forehead in pain.

The bird simply held his head, not saying a word.

"WHAT THE HELL!? Is your head made out of metal or something, chaos KILL ME!"

The purple möbian snickered but quickly dropped his expression once the speed demon realized something.

"Wait, WHO EVEN ARE YOU?! And what the hell are you doing in my bedroom?!"

The bird sighed as the hedgehog tugged the sheet higher up to cover up his entire body. For a moment it was silent as the hedgehog held his eye-contact with the bird-with slight fear in his eyes.

"...You're not a rapist... are you?"

Melts smacked his face...

* * *

 **Please, don't steal my work!**

 **If you make artwork of this please credit me and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


	7. Chapter 6: Blended Red

**Chapter 6**

Blended Red

* * *

Author's Note:

Just a heads up to anyone who's really queasy when it comes to any ounce of blood. There's a tiny gruesome moment towards the end of this chapter, but it isn't gory. I'll put this **/** for when it starts and when it ends. Also, there will be more gruesome moments that may or may not involve wounds and such—but don't worry, it won't be like Alien gore. Alien's like a next level gore compared to The Walking Dead. Those movies freak the hell out of me anyway XD

Also, really sorry for the year-long wait. TTnTT (Please forgiveeeeeee!)

I love writing this fanfic and now there are even more ideas I'd like to share with you guys! So I'll try to make an effort to post at least one chapter per week every Sunday! Unless writer's block suddenly materializes into an entity again and breaks the creative flow o.0

No promises when summer's over though! ewe

Oh, one more thing! Thank you so much for the reviews!

All of these questions you guys are asking are pretty good *wink-wink-nudge-nudge* (if you know what I mean) ewe

Imma gonna make youz guys confused asfffff!

Alrighty, I'm going to go eat some bark off that tree now.

* * *

"OH, HO, HO, HO," chortled none other than Möbius' most well-known villain, Dr. Eggman—or at least he tried to before a fly decided to go down his throat, like a kid on a waterslide.

His hacking coughs were too loud for him to hear the plane approaching in the distance, and even when the duo asserted their presence to him he could only hear the melodic sounds of himself dying.

"Uhh…"

"I think that whatever caused this has it covered Tails, we should just head into the house instead," suggested the not-so-surprised pink hedgehog.

However, before the Tornado advanced towards the house below, the mad scientist was able to relieve himself of the pesky little fly.

"S- _*cough*_ Stupid fly!"

Seeing as their enemy was now able to speak-they chose to listen. After all, Eggman was typically known to spill the beans of his plans before they even began…

"So, Sonic's been reckless without me- _*cough*_ \- hasn't he," sneered Eggman.

Not what was expected...

If Sonic had been asked that question personally, he would have gapped at the fact that Eggman watches the local news, but—since Amy couldn't care any less-she ignored the question.

"Quit the chit-chat Eggman-where are they," demanded the fired-up pink-head.

"Now that's not the way a girl should talk—aren't you more worried about your completely useless crush?"

The human shook his head in mock-disappointment as the offended girl nearly broke the Tornado's right wing while hurling herself towards him. The power from her rage was able to give her the strength to swing her hammer, almost as fast as Sonic would run, but it did absolutely nothing to the dodging Eggmobile.

"You may be intimidatingly strong, Rose, but you can't do anything without the ability to move fast on your feet—OH, HO, HO," commented the former winning dictator.

Suddenly the Eggman's vision lurched to the side as one of the Egg-mobile's engines was replaced by Amy's hammer…

"-ERR!"

"Can't do anything, huh," retorted Amy who landed perfectly on the left wing of the Tornado.

"Nice," praised the fox who had seen the pink hedgie flick her hammer towards Eggman at the last minute.

Before Eggman could counter Amy with another reply, Tails blasted him out of the sky.

To their surprise, however, the unfit scientist flew out of his cockpit and stuck an Olympic award-winning landing that almost blew the airborne möbians out of the sky—almost. If it was not for the jetpack that was hidden behind his back they would have questioned all of their sanity…

"OH, HO, HO, HO—didn't expect that now did we?!"

He didn't wait for a response for he had a more pressing matter to attend to. Pulling out a device from his pant-pocket, Eggman brought all attention to the big—not-so-conspicuous—red button. Before they could even reach the ground eighty feet below, an explosion on the left side of the house erupted—toppling half the roof…

"EGGMAN," roared Amy and Tails as they nearly nose dipped towards the destruction where Dr. Quack was trying to gather up his panicked family.

They could hear Dr. Quack trying to calm his wife and daughter...

"Continue your decent, Tails, and I won't hesitate to blow the place up sky-high," cautioned the now-insane scientist—this froze the kitsune's attempt...

"Y-you wouldn't—there're kids down there!"

"Would I," questionably mocked the Eggman as his fingers graced the device's trigger.

They were shocked into silence.

Tails knew that Eggman would back away from killing living-breathing creatures… he knew that the mad human had his limits and morals-or at least some shred of them. Even when he used flickies to power his army—heck, even when Tails was practically a cyborg during their visit to the Lost Hex—Eggman had at least something holding him back, so this new development was startling…

"And here I thought he'd just blabber on about his plan…" Amy barely said over a whisper to Tails.

"Now… hand over the Chaos Emerald," commanded the former dictator who stuck his hand out towards them.

"W-what?"

"Don't think I don't know, fox," he exclaimed as he brought out a yellow Chaos Emerald and stared at it.

"Wha-"

"How did h-"

"Chaos energy only reacts to either a user or another Chaos Emerald," said the human as he rose his gaze back to the duo.

"And seeing as neither one of you are able to wield it…" Eggman glanced towards the burning house where Dr. Quack had finally brought his wife, eldest and youngest out of danger… all except for his son who was still up on the second floor.

Eggman signaled them to give up their possession by slowly pushing the trigger…

"Okay! Okay, here," succumbed Tails as he took the blue emerald out of its compartment in the Tornado. It had been an extra power source for the plane for nearly a whole month until now.

Grinning even wider, Eggman caught the mystical gem as he spoke.

"Is it just me or do you feel a sense of déjà vu?"

The kitsune growled and watch as he had made enough time for Sonic's doctor to reach the second floor and climb out the window with his middle child. Tails and Amy silently sighed when the family was reunited a few minutes later.

"Oh, don't be too relieved just yet…" warned the evil genius as he pressed the button down with a smirk.

Their eyes widened as they watched the house become nothing more than a stark-contrast of flames against the royal blue sky—turning the surrounding atmosphere into a yellow hue. The duo acted quickly as they tried to reach the family, and—just when they were so close—Dr. Quack was yanked out of their grasp.

"HORATIO," screamed Dr. Quack's wife—Elizabeth—as she watched her husband get taken away by a fast blue being.

***Mystic Ruins Market***

Silence befell the store as its customers watched Sonic's counterpart grab a pair of hot-pink high heels. The shopping duo had finally found a clothing section for a woman that seemed to have some clothes of Rouge's style. Rouge was one of the few female möbians that would typically wear very tight… very _expressive_ clothes, and—since most möbian females were usually modest with their attire— it had given them hell to find a clothing shop with her taste.

Inspecting the high heels, with little awareness of the female möbians silently gathered around them—watching—Shadow tilted his head towards the Rookie who was right beside him.

"Do you think this is a good gift? Or maybe she already has a pair of these—the bat typically shops with faker's girlfriend..."

The contemplating hedgie waited for the slow reply of the red wolf who was paying little attention to Shadow's selection of clothing. The Rookie had been fully aware of all the attention that they were receiving from the customers around them, and this attention only made it harder for him to breathe. He could have sworn everyone in the store heard him swallowing his own spit—he began to wish that he was not standing as one of the elite heroes of the planet. There were times where the wolf missed being just a civilian rather than being a known hero. Maybe if he asked Sonic for advice on dealing with all this attention… nah, as many of his friends would say, Sonic was basically born an attention hog. Plus, the Rookie did not want to bother the blue blur as of late—although he did not know Sonic personally before the war, Amy and a few others had told him that Sonic was more tired than his normal self. Which would explain his absent-minded nature at the party they had earlier this week—or the fact that he hadn't appeared on the news as often as he used to before Infinite had made himself known.

"Hey! I did not invite you to come with me to simply watch the struggles of choosing out a perfect gift! You came along to struggle with me!"

The Rookie, who was getting used to Shadow's sharp edges, wasn't as frightened as he would have been before the conversation that they had this morning. The wolf merely swayed his head sideways—indicating that the high heels that Shadow was holding were not the best gift he could buy her. With a slight pout, the red-striped hedgie dropped the heels back into their respective box and watched as Sonic's buddy pointed towards the bikini aisle… Shadow's mussel nearly matched the color of his stripes as he now acknowledged the surrounding customers due to their loud gasps. Before one of said customers even peeped in outrage, the cherry-faced hedgie grabbed his companion and vanished in a flash of green...

***Tails' House***

Sonic found himself sighing in relief once the purple bird had reassured him that nothing of the sort had happened. Whoever this purple bird was, he probably thought that he was crazy—or perverted—for even thinking such a thing. Yet let's be honest here, after having one too many obsessed fangirls—excluding Amy—sneak into his previous room late at night, was he really being over-dramatic?

' _Glad Tails and I decided to get a new house in such a secretive spot, but…"_

Rubbing his forehead, Sonic hopped off of the bed in an attempt to go to the kitchen for a snack.

" _...how did he manage to find our house though,"_ wondered Sonic as he glanced at the purple bird standing across the bed. He wasn't exactly satisfied when the bird had told him that he was told—by a store owner a few miles where a small town resided—that Tails and Sonic lived here.

"... So what's your name again" questioned the hedgie as he focused on balancing his legs before he let go of the bedside.

"My name's Melts—Tails saved my life the other day, so I thought I could repay him by watching over you while you recover," replied the feathered möbian.

"Huh... and where is he and Amy right now?"

Sonic couldn't help it but feel slightly off around this newcomer—he wasn't used to having to meet a stranger inside their house without any background context, or without any of his other friends inviting said stranger… that's probably why he currently felt a bit eerie…

"Oh, they left to go run some urgent errand after I came to thank Tails."

The blue blur silently scoffed at this.

The last time someone had lied to him, or kept information from him, was after Shadow had knocked out a young blonde girl during one of their G.U.N. missions. Sonic wasn't an agent of G.U.N., but he thought it'd be nice to tag along and see what his counterpart's job was like—maybe have a few races here and there. To be honest, he would just tag along more so for the races than anything else—even though Shadow specifically told him that Sonic would be compromising his missions just by being present with Team Dark. Nonetheless, Sonic joined them—or more specifically Shadow since the rest of Team Dark was on a vacation.

It didn't take too long for Sonic to understand what Shadow meant by him compromising their missions for a civilian—during an assumed biological weapons deal between two of the most wanted criminals—had been playing near the shipyard where the two criminals where. She looked to be about nine years old and was leaping on top of cargo boxes—he didn't know why but the girl had found her little game to be amusing, and somehow the criminals hadn't noticed her yet. Sonic was the only one, in the entire group of G.U.N. agents, to actually consider taking her out of there first.

Apparently, in doing so, it would risk the chance to capture G.U.N.'s most wanted—but Sonic didn't care. The blue blur was about to do what he thought was right before a white-gloved hand had gotten in his way. He wasn't the only one who had seen her…

At first, Shadow nearly had to punch Sonic into silence for almost raising his voice in anger at Shadow's refusal to help. Shadow even had to grab Sonic's arm to stop him from leaping down there.

But when Shadow saw the look of worry, fear, and despair on the other's face—a look he was only ever given before his long 35 years of slumber—he knew he was doing wrong. Looking at the young girl in the distance, Shadow made up his mind.

Green orbs meet crimson and a mutual agreement was made before the red striped möbian disappeared. When he came back, however, the little girl had been struggling to get out of his grasp. She had punched, kick, and tried to yell at him to let her go—if it wasn't for Shadow's hand the two criminals would have noticed the commotion.

"The girl has been removed," reported the second fasted being alive.

"That was unnecessary, Agent Shadow, we will talk about this later. For now, focus on the task at hand," commanded Tower—the chief commander of G.U.N..

Shadow turned towards his look-alike who was sheepishly and uneasily smiling while raising his hands up in an apology. Instead of forgiveness, Sonic received nothing but an eye roll—which was weird because he was expecting the top G.U.N. agent to throw daggers at him or pumble him into a soup.

All was now going according to plan as the G.U.N. agents pulled out their tranquilizing guns—including real guns if needed for there were more than twenty henchmen down there. All they needed to do was wait for the criminals to present the biological weapon so that they wouldn't accidentally rupture its canister.

Suddenly, Shadow gave out a small yelp—the little girl tried to bite a chunk out of his hand. Sonic had the urge to laugh his socks off at the black hedgie's pained yet surprised face if it hadn't been for Shadow's quick hand chop to the blondie's neck—which promptly knocked her out cold.

The blue blur was completely enraged at this sudden action—sure she would have ruined their operation through her yelling—but was knocking her out necessary?

The hero of Mobius was about to reprimand him of his violence, but his words died in his mouth at the subtle new expression written on the other's visage. Usually his counterpart would appear completely apathetic to everything and everyone—and of course Sonic, and Shadow's closer friends like Rouge and Omega, knew he was anything but apathetic deep down—yet this time the Ultimate Life Form had let some of his emotions show.

It was only for a second but Sonic could see the disconsolate remorse, nostalgia, and… a bit of anger? Was it towards the child?

"Hey, Shadow? Shadow, you alright pal," whispered the blue blur.

"I'm fine," quietly replied the red striped hedgie as he swatted away the other's approaching hand.

"I wasn't born yesterday—I know when someone is lying or not," irritatingly stated the usually cheerful hedgie as he watched Shadow pick up the young human. It bothered Sonic to know that one of his friends was in pain—whether physically or emotionally—but it just irked him even more when he found one of them straight up lying to his face. He understood that they needed their privacy, but to have Shadow—who barely let anything crack his mask of insensitivity— actually show emotions and then say that he's fine? There was definitely something up with his counterpart.

"It's none of your business, Faker."

"Are you sure your alright?"

"Positive."

"..."

"..."

"... sigh, well at least talk to Rouge about it—keeping things pent up isn't good for anyone's health."

"..."

It seemed like the red and black hedgie was about to say something back, but his attention was back on their mission as one of the G.U.N. agents—a sniper—opened fire.

It had only been two months before the war started when that mission had happened, and Sonic's detection for lies—or the holding of information—was still as sharp as ever.

"What kind of errand," inquired the blue hedgie while he wobbly made his way out of his room and into the hallway—bird in tow.

' _Well, he's more perceptive than I thought he was…'_

"Oh, they headed off towards Angel Island—a friend of yours needed help finding the shards of the Master Emerald. They'll be back sooner or later," smiled the purple möbian.

' _Okay… he's definitely telling me a lie right there..."_

Sonic was about to confront the lying bird, but thought better of it...

"Okay, well I don't know about you but I'm starving right now," asked the nearly sober-of-anesthesia hedgehog.

' _Two can play dumb, bud, for now, let's keep an eye on ya...'_ thought the hungry hero as he finally arrived at the kitchen.

"I already ate before I got here, so I'll just watch some TV," responded Melts who sat on the couch in the living room.

"Alright," said Sonic who was abut to go and follow the bird, but then he glanced at the clock on the stove.

' _Holy crude?! I've been knocked out for more than eight hours?! Ohhh geez… Well, that explains why I'm freaking starving! Next time I see him, I'm definitely going to give Dr. Quake an ear full for using strong anesthesia on me!'_

As he prepared a sandwich—rather than a chili dog since they ran out of those a week ago—he tried not to think back to his sleep-terror.

Sonic had tried to cover his slightly red cheeks after he had awoken from the sleep paralyzes that came after the sleep-terror. It had been awkward to be in a vulnerable state in front of a stranger. It wasn't even like him to have those types of dreams, typically it had been Tails when they were younger. However, it did make sense for him to have them now considering—

' _-Okay Sonic, don't think about that—just don't. You're just freaking out over nothing because it isn't—'_

' _ **-real...'**_

He froze.

He turned towards the squeaky-clean, shiny refrigerator.

And sighed when he found nothing…

' _...I'll ask Knuckles to knock me out again when I see him,'_ Sonic mentally noted while rubbing his face.

Unbeknownst to the hedgie, Melts had been watching Sonic's subtle behavior…

****Angel Island****

Knuckles had never thought he would be happy that Sonic had broken his only radio. Well—in general—Knuckles was satisfied with the radio-headphones that he gotten in return because without it he'd probably be eating his own quills off right now.

It had been right after the party that the Chaotix decided to leave their youngest, Charmy, with him. Obviously, Victor had heard him wrong when Knuckles had mentioned that babysitting was a piece of cake—babysitting the Master Emerald was! Not a petulant child!

From where he was sitting aside the Master Emerald, he could see the bee chewing grass on the ground. Charmy was _truly_ bored out of his mind—like a parrot eating its own crap in order to get attention—but, see, Knuckles was perfectly fine with that. The only thing he _wasn't_ fine with was Charmy's sporadically loud _mooing_ that **somehow** he could hear even with noise-canceling headphones on!

The kid was a non-stop, hyperactive ringtone that just _would_. _NOT_.

" **STOP** ," shouted the echidna as he desperately flung his limbs out in all directions—Knuckles didn't know where he learned to do this, but it seems to shut people up quite quickly. The honey bee merely stared at him for half a minute and then choose to speak.

"..." which is what came out of the bee's moving lips.

He must have broken his vocal cords while _mooing_ because Knuckles could not hear shat. Oh, wait… his headphones were still on.

Reluctantly, while staring at the kid, the guardian of the Master Emerald took his new music system off his head. What met his ears was utterly horrendous.

And words could not describe it…

"What in the life span of sweat Chaos was that?!"

"It's a language I learned from one of the Special Zones that Victor threw me in," cheekily stated the black and yellow nuisance.

"Since when do the Special Zones have inhabitants?"

"I don't know, but Victor likes to call them a figment of the mind… whatever that means…" merely replied the younger one as he shrugged.

' _Before I witness anymore 'hidden talents,' the Chaotix better rid me of this nightmare…'_ thought Knuckles as his eyes slowly half-lidded…

Suddenly, a sound—almost like hissing—was heard behind the guardian and was accompanied by a growing bright light. Knowing the familiar sound, the echidna quickly turned around to give all of his attention to the massive gem.

"What is it Master Emerald? What are you trying to tell me," said Knuckles in an assertive and nearly desperate tone. After all of the years he spent protecting the huge object, he learned one thing. Whenever the gem would make noises and illuminate it was—almost always—an ominous sign.

Knuckles held his breath in slight anticipation as the Master Emerald increased its blinding glow.

A child-like giggle was heard from behind him—Knuckles couldn't even form a sentence before the Master Emerald exploded.

A few shards of the Master Emerald followed it's protector to the ground below. The bone-crushing impact was not enough to wipe the deep frown off the redhead's face—especially not when spluttering laughter emanated from above.

As if what he did wasn't enough, the chortling bee sat right on top of Knuckle's face-planted head—basically stabbing the echidna in the process.

All Knuckles saw was red as his head violently erupted out of the dirt like a volcano—promptly chucking the now hysterically fearful child into the sky. Foam-like-magma came out of the crushing gritted teeth of the echidna when he got off the ground.

Charmy knew he had death written on his face because Knuckles' scrunched up eyebrows, more or less, broke the guardian's face.

"Ho-hold on Knucky-"

A bass-sounding blast of a growl.

"-I MEAN KNUCKLES—Knuckles! W-what if I told you that th-that Master Emerald was F-FAKE," screeched the kid while his babysitter's quills somehow rose alongside his skyrocketing rage. Kinda like how Broly's hair was when he went Super Saiyan in DB's latest Broly movie.

"Blender…" quietly stated the echidna.

"Huh," questionably gulped the not so charmy bee.

Before Knuckles could answer, he heard the hissing sound again. Triggered, he pulled out a blender from who-knows-where and was about to answer Charmy's question with it until his eye caught something.

This time the Master Em- well, the shards, were glowing. It wasn't a fluke this time as images seemed to flash across what was left of the gem. This lead him to dismiss the lucky bee's actions.

Leaving the pale nuisance to recuperate in silence, Knuckles approached pieces of what gave him purpose.

Pieces of what warned him of what was to come…

More of the sclera of his eyes could be seen as his eyelids parted further. He'd seen prophetic images of Eggman in the E-99 Eggsterminator, he'd seen Perfect Chaos wreak Station Square, heck, he'd even seen Nazo's elimination of an entire city! Nothing, however, compared to this…

There were billions.

 **/**

Billions of Möbians, just lying motionlessly on top of one another. The white pristine buildings of Metropolis now tattered, destroyed, smeared and tainted with red. Fumes of the fire that licked almost every ally way, every street, and structure, stained the misty blue night of the city into a smothering black.

And in the middle of it all—a silhouette of a young boy…

Staring at everything around him—underneath him and on his hands.

Knuckles didn't dare breath as the youth began to shake—almost like he was… laughing? The figure shakily tried to wipe the tears from his eyes but stopped as if doing so would smear the dripping liquid, on his hands, across his already dripping visage.

 **/**

Willing himself to ignore the scene, the echidna focused on identifying the child—but he knew no one that wore what seemed to be a bit messy, and slightly pulled back hair-do.

He tried looking at the shape of the kid in general to see if that would ring any bells, but the figure suddenly, quickly hugged itself. Knuckles didn't have the chance to figure out why since his attention zoned in on the kid's left eye—now only slightly open.

But just enough to see the red showing through.

* * *

 **Please, don't steal my work!**

 **If you make artwork of this please credit the story and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


	8. Chapter 7: A Wavering Doubt

**Chapter 7**

A Wavering Doubt

* * *

Author's Note:

Sorry for the somewhat late chapter, I wasn't expecting it to be this difficult to write a single chapter in one week. There were just too many things to do and there wasn't even enough time to proofread. Plus today is Father's Day—Happy Father's Day!

Also, there was an error this morning that wouldn't let me make a new document. Idk what's up with fanfiction today, but I managed to post this by pasting the story into an old document. HA! Suck on that error code! *Pats on back*

Anyways, I know I said the story would be posted every week, but I think it's better to post once every two weeks instead—why? Well, I felt like this chapter was a bit rushed, plus writing this chapter hadn't been as fun as the other ones had been. It was more time-based than anything, and that kind of stress takes away from the creativity, plus I have a life XD

So yerp!

As promised, here is thy next chapter!

Update 6/17/19: I just tweaked and fixed some unclear stuff in this chapter—seeing how confusing it would get at times. XP

* * *

"Tails! As much as I don't want to, I think we need to call in Sonic for this," Amy yelled while she narrowly missed a missile. The pink hedgehog wiped her lightly sweat-covered forehead in silent relief—not paying attention to the second missile heading directly in her way.

Tails saw this and quickly managed to tilt the Tornado just in time to dodge the weapon—causing Amy to have to grab onto the plane's right wing.

"I don't really- HMPH- think it's a good idea to- ERR- get him involved while he's still recovering," sternly stated the fox. He understood Amy's suggestion in tagging Sonic along—heck, he was having trouble catching up with Metal Sonic and dealing with Eggman all while using the X-Tornado—but having his older brother get involved right after that massive dosage of anesthesia? Bad idea. Sonic was a real quick self-healer—in fact, one of the fasted at it—but even he can't magically filter all of that overnight. Not without a Chaos Emerald at least.

"How are we going to take them on then? Because, if I remember clearly, our only source of rechargeable power was taken away by Eggman!"

For a moment, the kitsune couldn't reply since the majority of his focus trained on dodging Eggman's robots and missiles—all while following Dr. Quack and his kidnapper. Now that he thought about it, it was pretty strange how the mad scientist wasn't even saying a word since Metal Sonic appeared. Why is that?

As if to answer his question, Metal Sonic jetted upright and into the clouds—and what Metal Sonic went towards didn't make the kitsune and his friend surprised at all. Now they understood why Eggman was so quiet—he had been directing his speedy robot to go somewhere.

 _'When will this cycle end,'_ thought Tails and Amy as they stared at Angel Island through clouds and robots.

"Welp, at least we might run into Knuckles," re-assured Sonic's younger brother. He expected a reply from his current companion, but when he received none, Tails gave her a quick glance. Amy was busy watching something to her right—almost like she didn't even hear his reassuring comment. When she turned around there was an unreadable look on her face—the only thing that he could tell from her face was that she seemed rather spooked as she stared straight ahead.

"Amy?"

"HMmm," replied the somewhat jumpy hedgie.

"You okay," asked Tails as he raised his eyebrows at her.

"Yep."

Tails gave her an inquisitive look that implicitly told Amy that he didn't believe her. The tacit conversation, however, was cut short as the kitsune became aware of the dozens of Bee Bots that surrounded their plane. Somewhere, deep in Tails' subconsciousness, an inner Sonic was scolding the bonkers out of him for not paying attention to the battle around him. Through the noise of the lasers charging, Tails and Amy could hear the evil doctor laugh as he, Metal Sonic, and Dr. Quack fled into Angel Island's vast forest.

****Rainbow Valley (Angel Island's Largest Forest Zone)****

Today was just not his day…

First the press decided to send its paparazzi to sic 'em, then he had to deal with the backlash of having the entire public know who one of his patients was—resulting in the majority of the hospital closing for the day, due to a large crowd of fans—and now the mad arch-nemesis of his famous said patient destroyed his home, kidnapped him, and nearly killed his family! Horatio Quack had had enough. Before this stressful mess, if you had asked him to go on a vacation, Horatio would have automatically declined—stating that too many people's lives and families needed his help. In fact, he hasn't been on vacation since his mid-forties. But now—once this is all over with—he's going to book it to the south and stay there, with his family, for a month. His co-workers can manage themselves for that long. He deserved at least that much…

Images of waves slowly molding the sand of a beach were interrupted by his and Metal Sonic's rough landing in the forest. Confused, the physician looked towards his captor, who stood stock still.

Dr. Quack had stumbled upon a few live broadcasts where Sonic had been fighting off his metallic counterpart, but never did Horatio imagine that he'd be in the presence of the intimidatingly cold robot—let alone be its victim. On TV, Metal Sonic had looked more or less menacing, but apparently, graphics couldn't catch how terrifyingly frightening the robot's lifeless eyes looked. Or how razor sharp its claws were, thought Dr. Quack, now that they were against his neck.

"Horatio, was it?"

Said person raised his head towards Eggman, who was slowly descending in his Egg-Mobile with a smirk.

In response, the enraged duck spat in the former dictator's face. If he was in his calm state, he wouldn't have done that, but something ticked in Horatio when he thought about all of the things that this being had made his teenage patient go through in his childhood—the recent incident with his family only made the duck all the more furious. Sonic was like another son to him, and his family—he didn't know what he'd do without his wife and children. They were what motivated him to work every day at the hospital.

"My-my, for the 'voice-of-reasoning' you don't really live up to your name do you," merely smiled the angry scientist as he wiped his face off in slight disgust.

"Speaks the one who completely lost his conscience," sneered the yellow duck. Metal Sonic's vice-like grip only tightened around his right arm—nearly breaking through Horatio's skin.

"Speaking of conscience, how is our hyperactive pain-in-the-rear doing? Still recovering at home I presume," questioned the grinning mad-man as he ignored the previous remark.

"As if I'd ever talk to you about any patient of mine, let alone Sonic!"

"Aww, well that's a bummer. I was just wondering if he could still tell from right and wrong—what with all the shots of benzodiazepines he received yesterday…" suavely said the once good doctor.

Horatio blinked. He simply blinked, and it took him a few seconds to now understand why Sonic had gone unconscious with such a moderate amount of benzodiazepine. At least he thought it had been a moderate dosage…

He had asked for all of the syringes back and had gotten the three that he prescribed. All six of his nurses had told him that three shots had been injected. One of which was for the Down Head Syndrome shot, and two of which were benzodiazepines—since Sonic's adrenaline wouldn't slow down. If it hadn't slowed down, Sonic's lactic acid—which he almost never gets unless he's truly scared—combined with the extra large amount of acid in the prescribed shot would have given him acidosis. A condition when there is high acidity in the blood that will, more likely than not, put just about anyone into a seizure. How could Eggman have possibly known that they were going to use anesthetics? If he had known, why didn't he just kill-off the hero if all he could do was pour more acid into the mix? No one would have suspected a thing and all the blame would go to Horatio… but since when would Eggman not want people knowing his handy work? What was-

"Come on, Horatio. We don't have all day," grinned the Eggman as his gaze rose up to the sky where he could see a swarm of his robots fighting off the unusual pink and yellow duo. When the orange mustached man slowly descended his gaze back towards the quiet yet furious möbian, he rose his left hand and snapped it.

Horatio shouted as pain flooded from the claw that dug into his right arm. Horatio tried to grab at the metallic hand and try to stop the miniature waterfall of blood leaking. Suddenly, the pressure stopped but his old age didn't allow him to bounce back in resilience, strength, or energy like he used to.

"Look, we're doctors, right? Doctors share information with each other, am I right?"

 _'When it comes to confidentiality, no…_ ' the old duck bitterly thought.

"See, all I need to know is a little more about my arch-enemy, and seeing how you are Sonic's life-long physician…" Eggman's smile widened into a mockingly, sweet one.

With gritted teeth, the bird silently told the former dictator to screw off. Those gritted teeth only grinded when Metal Sonic jostled the already bleeding wound on his right arm.

"Unless you tell me something good that I don't know about the demonic, little, pesk, you're going to wish you never became Sonic's doctor!"

Not able to withstand the pain that the sharp metallic digits were causing, Horatio began to give in…

"S-Sonic…AH, Sonic is allergic t-to Jingle F-Flowers! We a-are currently… working o-on a-"

" **Detected enemies nearby. Distance from position: 8.34 meters** ," suddenly interrupted the killer machine which instantly ended Eggman's slight amusement at the tiny info he was being given…

"Jingle Flowers?"

Both heads—excluding Metal Sonic's, since it was already facing towards the new-comers—looked up towards where the questioning voice came from.

"Huh, who would've guessed," sincerely stated Knuckles while coming out from the treetops above—Charmey following behind.

An irritated noise escaped from Eggman while Horatio silently sighed in relief.

"Alright. Let the doctor go, Eggman!"

"I think not, Knuckles. He hasn't answered all my questions yet—Metal, you know what to do," yelled the red-dressed man as he threw his hands towards the only true native of Angel Island.

"Charmey, go get Vector and the others—they're at Vanilla's," commanded the guardian while lowering his body into a fighting stance. As told, the young bee left—just barely missing Metal Sonic's kamakazi attack. The red echidna had just enough time to dodge the shielded robot—causing the blue robot to dig its sharp digits into a thick tree. As he fell to the ground, Knuckles saw Dr. Quack get caught in a cage that came from above. The Egg-Mobile began to lift the cage up, but Knuckles wasn't going to let Eggman go that easily. With a growl, the hot-head threw himself onto the side of the cage—barely managing to reach it now that it had ascended five feet into the air. He grabbed the large bars, but his hands slid to the bottom of the bars—not able to maintain a gripe due to the speed of the Egg-Mobile ascending. It seems like the Eggman had installed a force-field around the bars itself because normally Knuckles would've been able to bend them.

"Knuckles!"

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of here-"

Before the red echidna began to think of another way to release Dr. Quack, his metallic opponent tackled him off—leaving the entrapped duck to sink into a panic.

Both the killing machine and the hot-tempered möbian were flying through the air—Metal grabbing at the redhead's neck. Knuckles—in an attempt to weaken the robot and make Metal release his grip—aimed his fist into Metal Sonic's turbine. Seeing this, the mechanical being whirred up its engine and almost fried the right hand of the pointy-knuckled offender—who drew back his punch and watched as the charged laser shot past his fur-covered arm.

Running out of oxygen due to being strangled, Knuckles quickly took advantage of Metal's uncharged engine and jammed his fist into it. Although this didn't shut down the cobalt copy-cat, it did stop it from imitating Sonic's speed and flight abilities. The action didn't, however, help end the throttling that the echidna was receiving—no, it was the impact with the ground—sixty feet below—that had ceased the choking.

Knuckles rolled away from the enemy—embarrassingly holding his neck in the process but otherwise felt confident knowing that he stunted Metal's fighting skills. Now Metal was limited to his fists and feet. Through the dust cloud that came from the impact, Metal Sonic's crimson eyes could be seen rising from the ground.

"What? Didn't think that being around Tails would teach me a thing or two about how you work," questioned Knuckles as he tried to stall and find where the doctors went…

 _'Great, now I'm sounding like that cocky, arrogant moron himself. I need to meet new people,'_ uneasily thought Angel Island's only native.

Almost as if to show outrage, the robotic being launched itself into a run towards Knuckles…

****Mystic Ruins Market****

"Well, it took us practically the morning and part of the afternoon, but I think we found the perfect gift," softly said the ebony hedgie while he and the Rookie walked out of the Mystic Ruins Market.

The Rookie was slightly taken aback by the almost pure smile on Shadow's face—which only lasted a second, but he had definitely seen it. Huh, who knew that the most grumpy being on the planet could have a smile like that? It made the red wolf wonder what kind of life the Ultimate Life Form had before he became a G.U.N. agent…

"Rogue had always complained about how cold weather would always bother, if not freeze, her wings off. Not only will this gift be satisfactory, but I won't have to hear her complaining during any of our cold-climate missions," stated Shadow as he took the green Chaos Emerald from the quills behind his head.

 _'So that's where they keep things…'_ thought Sonic's newest acquaintance.

"Thank you for the help in choosing the best gift possible for Rogue," said the dark hedgie. Shadow then took the box and wrapping paper from the newest Freedom Fighter and basically gave him a salute gesture before he vanished into thin air.

"Your not half bad kid," said the hedgehog as he disappeared...

The Rookie sheepishly smiled at that.

 _'Wait a minute…'_

The wolf with the glasses sighed in frustration now that he realized he missed his chance of teleporting ten miles back to his house. On a normal day, he wouldn't have minded, but he was exhausted from all the shopping and the staring female customers… Sometimes he wondered if any of the overly powerful group of hedgies were grateful for their abilities…

The Rookie began his long tread back to his house when suddenly another flash of green appeared right in front of him. Shadow was back, but instead of his lighthearted mood and his handful of wrapping paper, he had nothing in his hands and a serious look in his eyes.

"G.U.N. just called in, they want me to head to Angel Island to sort out a mess. No details were given yet, but they have confirmed that Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic were spotted. Seeing as I… owe you, I'll teleport you over there so that you can help your squad out, deal?"

The red möbian looked down to where the hedgehog had his gift and Shadow followed his gaze for a split second. He did _not_ just spend _half_ his day looking for a great gift only for Shadow to just dump it somewhere like it was nothing, did he?

"I left it at home," reassured the serious, monotone, half-alien.

The Rookie, satisfied with the answer, shook his head once in agreement—now finding newfound energy to support his team members.

"Alright then," said Shadow as he grabbed the wolf's right arm.

"Chaos Control!"

The Rookie didn't have time to think of why Shadow would sometimes say 'Chaos Control,' and why he sometimes wouldn't before he felt a huge force pull him into his own core. It almost felt like he was being pushed on all of his sides—deformed into a different shape before being stretched in one direction—in other words, he felt like putty. The feeling only lasted a mili-second before he found himself right next to the shrine of the Master Emerald.

 _'...On second thought, maybe it's better that I don't have powers…'_ thought the red wolf as he held his spinning head—trying not to vomit.

"You might want to hurry up and recuperate—we don't know what we're getting into yet," whispered Shadow while he yanked his companion's right arm. Both of them hide behind one of the shrine's pillars—which had fallen years ago—and silently waited. The red being wearing glasses was going to question Shadow's sanity until he saw the hedgie's ears swerve towards the other side of the fallen pillar. The geared möbian tried to do the same, but his ears picked up nothing—after a while, the Rookie was starting to believe that the red-striped hedgehog was missing a screw or something. That was until he heard a faint hover-like sound coming from the distance. It was coming from the same direction that Shadow's ears had swerved towards.

The Rookie was astonished that Shadow's hearing was that sharp—typically wolves would pick up far frequencies quicker than most species on Möbius, but Shadow wasn't pure möbian, was he? His genetics from the aliens he heard about must have been the reason for his superb hearing range.

A minute later and the Egg-Mobile, of a certain villain, came into view—carrying with it a cage with… an old man inside? Why?

Then the Rookie recalled the swarm of people that surrounded the TVs at the Mystic Ruins Market.

Shadow had been dragging him into another store, claiming that there had to be a better gift, when the red-toned wolf had taken a glance at the crowd. Usually, crowds like that formed when news stations were giving information about the former tyrant—Eggman—and if Eggman had kidnapped this person then said person should have some sort of information that the doctor wanted.

Shadow's linked comm with G.U.N. only confirmed the wolf's suspicions as General Tower filled in on what was happening. The guy inside the cage was a medical doctor—but what the wolf didn't know was that he was _Sonic's_ doctor.

"Paparazzi got a hold of who the doctor of that blue buffon was, and Eggman—most likely—caught on by watching the news. Vice versa, now he has a hostage. Your priority is to secure the Master Emerald—keep it in place—otherwise, the island will fall right on top of Station Square. That echidna really doesn't take into consideration where he's island is floating…" sighed the commander.

"What about the hostage," asked Shadow in a whisper, while he signaled to the Rookie to quietly move closer to the scene.

"He comes second—and if you can't save him then well, that's just one life instead of millions… Call me when your mission is done," stated Tower.

Sonic's counterfeit quietly growled after cutting off the transmission—a flame growing in his eyes.

"Now then, where were we? What do you know about chaos wielders, and skip the unnecessary info please" demanded Eggman as he lowered his Egg-Mobile in order to see Horatio through the cage.

"Chaos Wielders," nearly snorted and half questioned Horatio, "all I know is that they're able to wield the Chaos Emeralds. My associates and I only started to scratch the surface of that subject—I barely know a thing about them other than that, and even if I did you wouldn't get answers from me!"

"How could this be? You, Dr. Horatio, are the only one alive who has been studying a Chaos Wielder since childhood! The only other Chaos Wielder, aside from Shadow The Hedgehog, disappeared before I was reborn—so if you haven't been testing him, then there must be something useful that you've witnessed over the course of that rodent's life," yelled the now impatient scientist.

' _Reborn,'_ thought the confused yellow duck while—at the same time—he stared angrily at the now obviously insane mad-man. Before Horatio could suggest a local therapist for the Eggman, a black and red ball of spike collided with the Egg-Mobile out of nowhere. At the same time, a red wolf used his Wispon to melt the giant chain that was connecting the Egg-Mobile to the cage—so that the momentum of the thrown Egg-Mobile wouldn't knock the cage over.

"Clearly this conversation isn't going anywhere, doctor…" stated the Ultimate Life Form as he gave a quick glance towards the Rookie—who was already burning a hole into the cage. The Egg-Mobile tried to gain stability in the air before it ultimately dropped onto the ground—Eggman directed his attention to his grandfather's creation in frustration…

In all honesty, the mad scientist in red wasn't so surprised that most of the big hitters in Sonic's group were attacking him now. He was, after all, on the television for blowing up Dr. Horatio's house. But seriously, speak of the devil...

"Shadow, Why you-"

However, Dr. Gerald's nephew wasn't—at all—expecting to have to dodge out of the way of two brawling figures.

"GAHHHH!"

Knuckles, as if not red enough, had a leaking gash across his forehead and over his blackeye—not too deep, but just enough for it to bleed. Shadow, Eggman, Dr. Quack, and the Rookie all watched Knuckles practically pummel Metal Sonic into the ground—denting Metal's head in the process. This caused the robot's virtual eyes to sizzle—signalling that the robot was out of commission or malfunctioning. At that very moment, Tails—who was carrying Amy—appeared, landing near the mayhem…

"Looks like we didn't have to call anyone, Tails," stated Amy while she and Tails approached the scene. The Rookie waved at all of them, with a bit of a dumbfounded look on his face, and Shadow simply nodded. Knuckles wiped his forehead where the gash was and smirked at them.

"What a coincidence, huh," suavely asked Knuckles, and with that, all six of them turned their heads to the uneasy, sweating doctor—now outnumbered by five. He began to sweat more when Metal Sonic woke up out of his robo-coma.

 **"Termination of this unit has been initiated,"** announced the metallic copy-cat as the countdown numbers—starting from two seconds—displayed across his eyes.

"WHO COUNTS DOWN FROM TWO SECONDS!?"

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!"

Amy and Shadow had just enough time to complete their sentences for the malfunctioning machine exploded—hardly giving all of them any time to hit the deck.

Of course, as if a writer was in charge of what was happening, Eggman managed to come to first—giving him the advantage to leave when everyone else was somewhat out of it. After all, they had been the ones that ended up closer to Metal Sonic's explosion…

Before he got up to leave, Dr. Eggman found that he was next to a green Chaos Emerald…

'How conveniently fortunate…' thought Sonic's arch-nemesis. Pick-pocketing the jewel, the large man began to run to his Egg-Mobile. Eggman had ended up on the ground a few yards away from his hovering seat, so it took him a bit to get to his craft.

The infamous scientist was about to jump-start his hover-craft when Shadow—being the Ultimate Life Form that he is—quickly got over the after-effects of being near an explosion. He spotted the evil doctor trying to make his getaway.

"Not so fast, doctor," yelled out the ebony hedgehog. The Space Colony Ark's project hurled himself at the floating vehicle with his rocket shoes.

Amidst the attack, the others on the ground began to blink out of their foggy stupor. The old yellow duck was the only one who stayed unconscious—the Rookie had taken up the responsibility in taking care of the civilian while everyone else, besides Shadow and Eggman, seemed to become fixed on Knuckles. They all stared at him in annoyance…

"What?"

They all ignored him and turned their attention to the spears being thrown at a basically defenseless man with black glasses. Said defenseless man pushed a mechanism that formed a shield around his hover car.

' _I need to make that feature more easy to access, otherwise, I might just die the next time one of my own creations decides to blow up in my presence,_ " scowled Eggman in thought. The now formed shield blocked the rabid hedgie from tearing up his machine up. Although the shield protected the mastermind from getting hurt, it didn't help him to escape since the ebony hedgehog basically started using the spherical shield like a soccer ball.

Which is why Eggman called the rest of his mechanical creations to stall all five of them and save his hind.

"Whaaaatt, there're more?! Geez, how much free time do you waste on making robots rather than seeking out a soul mate," exasperated Amy as she called forth her Piko-Piko Hammer.

"Why seek a soul mate when I've got plans that they'll get in the way of?"

"Fair point," said Shadow while the rest of the Freedom Fighters took a fighting stance—half of the robotic army charging up their weapons.

"OH HO HO HOOO! Have fun," chanted the Eggster as he left his swarm of Bee Bots to destroy the group…

Instantly, when Eggman left, the second fastest thing alive felt a loss of chaos energy. Alarmed, he craned his arm into the back of his quills but found nothing. His eyes widened when he realized that Eggman must have taken it during his blackout shortly after the explosion.

He didn't have time to process how he must've gotten it—or whether or not to cringe at the thought of the scientist's banana fingers touching his striped quills. All he could do was join the rest as they tried to bombard the hundreds of bees…

****At Tail's House****

Contrary to popular believe, Sonic didn't really like watching shows—or anything on TV as a matter of fact. Why waste your precious time watching what you can actually do more than half of the filmed content in real life? What was the point?

Which is the reason why he was now blowing straw wrappers at objects in the kitchen. If his closest friend was here right now he would scold and tell Sonic to put the straws away—this was probably the seventh time this week that the blue hedgie was playing with straws. It became somewhat of a habit after-

A loud shout from the TV in the living room interrupted his train of thoughts, he almost forgot he had compan- a nany over.

The only thing holding him back from leaving the stuffy house, and laying on a neighboring tree, was Melts' constant supervision—even though the bird was watching television. Sonic could tell that Melts was occasionally throwing glances at him from the corner of his eye—ever since he sat down in the kitchen—but cobalt being didn't say anything about it.

It was the expression on Melts face, however, that kind of bothered the blue blur—that facial expression was, apparently, pretty hard to decipher…

Sonic guessed that it was probably somewhat strange seeing an energetic person like himself merely sit on a kitchen seat for two hours, but then again he had been dosed with a crazy amount of… whatever the heck they put him out with, yesterday…

 _'What? Heroes can't play with straws like normal people,'_ thought the hero of Möbius with a disgruntled mood—one eyelid lower than the other. See Sonic wasn't always the insecure type, he rarely ever felt insecure actually, it was just that Melts had been watching him for about two hours— barely saying anything other than some random topics like how not a lot of möbians have quills that can turn razor sharp. Or asking questions like 'where did you find your trademark shoes' or 'how do you have that much energy to keep up with your running?' Some of the questions were kind of getting a bit too close for comfort—of course, Sonic wouldn't blame anyone of his fans for wanting to know where he originated from—that's typical for fans of just about anyone—but he didn't exactly feel like sharing his past with a stranger right now…

Although he was practically on guard the entire time since he woke up, the speed demon was slowly losing the fight to stay awake. When Melts wasn't looking, Sonic leaned forward in his seat—eyes in blurry slits and arms on the table, holding his head. The blue blur stifled a yawn as the straw fell from his mouth.

Melts almost hit the ceiling when he heard a loud thump, accompanied by a clashing of plates, from the kitchen—when he turned around to see what was going on, he was met with a passed out teen who was essentially falling off the kitchen table.

Melts just stared for a moment in disbelief…

 _'Well, then…'_ the purple bird thought as he got up and quickly headed towards the tuckered out hedgehog.

He was only a few feet away when Melts stopped in his tracks. He didn't know any better, but he thought he felt an unnerving vibe...

* * *

 **If you make artwork of this please credit the story and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


	9. Chapter 8: No Such Thing

**Chapter 8**

No Such Thing

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Author's Note:

Okay, jas, I failed at posting this chapter last week. Motivation and creativity isn't something to push I realize, and life is hard as it is with a job—so I'll be posting as often as I can breathe. I'll post on the first Sunday of every month instead. XP Hopefully this chapter will make up for the no-show last weekend—seeing as this one's the longest chapter by far.

Also, excuse me for not mentioning all of this earlier in the fanfic, but here are some clarifying things that need to be said:

Tails' parents, or anyone biologically related to him, do not exist in my story. Also, Chris and the Thorndykes do not exist (there's nowhere to put these people in my fic and generally I don't exactly like how'd they would affect the story). Also, there are three different cannons combined. Sally Acorn is in this but she isn't being shipped with Sonic—she's just going to be the leader of the Freedom Fighters and one of Sonic's close friends. Just think of this fanfic as the world seen in SA2B/Forces combined with the Archie comics. (I'll give you guys more FYIs along the way if needed).

Anyways, here's an intense chapter for ya! ewe

* * *

 _ **It wasn't him**_ _, it just couldn't have been him—how could this have happened, he'd never do such a thing…_

 _Never, never, never…_

 _Everything's okay..._

 _That was the only sentence that echoed in his mind continuously on repeat. The only sentence that was convincing his heart that nothing had happened. That there wasn't a reason to completely shatter from the non-existing guilt—because there wasn't guilt, right? What did he do? Absolutely nothing._

 _Nothing…_

 _Young orbs trailed its way from the floor tiles and up to the wall in front of him—the familiar hollow wall that resembled his shell of a body… And for a split moment, he truly felt at peace._

 _But of course, his heart wouldn't let him be. It wouldn't let him escape the truth as it will always remind us of the wrongs we've done—of the inexplicable sins that haunt us. His heart, the conductor of his emotions, had helped him see the truth in everything. So really… how can one run from what they truly feel?_

 _How can they hide from reality?_

 _Wait, wait, wait… why was he thinking this when he hasn't done anything wrong? He didn't do anything! It was just his emotions that were causing him to feel pain—the pain of some else's. That's right, it was someone else's—it was that demonic monster's guilt!_

' _So then why are you the one feeling this way,' questioned two voices._

 _Like a statue, the young_ _möbian became immobile—more immobile then when his friendly comrade escorted him into the kitchen earlier. The scrawny being watched as his newly befriended möbian fell into another distant, faraway trance. One that would most likely last for at least another hour—just like the first three times since the youth got here…_

 _Like any other person, the lanky being had asked what had happened the second he opened the door to the young one. Nothing but few quiet tears and a hollow stare—that didn't even show awareness—was his answer. And when he finally tugged the youth from the colorless night and into the light of his living room, he had gasped in profound shock from the state of his friend._

 _There had to be an explanation—he couldn't simply conclude without facts. It could have been self-defense—that would explain why his friend looked-_

 _This is what he had thought hours ago, but—after setting the clearly distressed möbian on his couch—he realized that his friend needed time, a lot of time, to overcome the trauma before answering any questions…_

 _Since then the skinny being had been silently patient, sitting in a kitchen chair a few feet next to the shell-shocked minor—he'd drop a few reassuring words here and there to see if it'd help the young one come out of his current state, but nothing seemed to work. Just when the concerned elder was about to set the bedroom up for his guest—seeing how there would be no way finding the kid's parent's without communication—the möbian spoke up…_

" _I couldn't stop it…"_

"So why can't you use your Chaos Emerald to get us out off of Angel Island, Shadow!?"

The nervous exclamation from Amy could hardly be heard as Tail's airplane took off from Angel Island—all six of them on board.

They had recently taken out about two hundred Bee-Bots before they were all called back to where-ever their master had fled off to. Of course, they knew it was simply a distraction for their commander's getaway, but it spoke volumes when they had to fight off more than four hundred Bee-Bots. Eggman had definitely been scared of them catching up with him, which meant he was hiding something…

They didn't have time to contemplate on whatever it was that he might be scheming as they had a pedestrian in need. The unconscious doctor had been placed in the second passenger seat behind Tails—where Amy had ridden at the beginning of the whole ordeal—leaving the Rookie, Amy, Shadow and Knuckles to fly on the wings of the X Tornado. The yellow pilot had told them that they would be fine and that the Tornado could practically carry an elephant, but Amy wasn't sure if he was referring to a möbian elephant or an earth elephant…

"Yeah, where were your Chaos fueled attacks when we needed them," asked Knuckles in curiosity.

"...The doctor took my Chaos Emerald after Faker's metallic fake self-destructed…" reluctantly replied the ebony hedgehog.

"And I thought Sonic was the only screwball of the team," muttered the red echidna.

"Speak for yourself, aren't you forgetting that large emerald of your's."

"I've got Mighty covering for me!"

' _They definitely have beef with each other—must be because they're secretly fighting over Rouge,'_ thought the Rookie. He had been glancing at Shadow and Knuckles' interactions throughout the course of the whole Eggman attack and only now did they actually directly speak to each other—giving the Rookie the opportunity to gauge their behavior with one another.

"That covers that, but why can't you just get off the island yourself, Knuckles? Can't you glide," questioned Amy who was now clinging on to the frame of the X Tornado. The guardian sulked and crossed his arms in a defensive manner…

"It's quicker to get off the island this way…"

The pink hedgehog would have knocked Knuckles off the wing with her Piko-Piko Hammer had she not been afraid of the extra weight it would have added. She ended up giving him a death stare instead—which nearly did push the hot-head off the right-wing…

"Hey, how's Horatio doing by the way? I can't really see him from up here," said Tails who had finally taken off as he was now able to split his attention to his friends.

"He's still unconscious and it looks like he's arm is still bleeding. The makeshift gauze isn't really helping…" reported the pink hedgehog.

"Okay, I'll need to pick up the speed so you guys better hold on tight—we're heading to the nearest hospital first," stated the kitsune as he adjusted to full gear.

"WAHHHHH," was all that was heard as they propelled towards the outskirts of Station Square…

A few minutes later after a slightly rough—but professional—landing into a parking lot, the gang finally arrived at the city's hospital…

"As a hospital for millions of people, you'd expect it to be smack dab in the center of the city…" stated Knuckles as he gave a hand to the slightly trembling pink hedgehog who was getting off of the wing. Shadow and the Rookie were left in charge of getting Horatio out of the passenger seat since Tails practically ran inside to get the proper paramedics. Hopefully this hospital had doctors specialized in the autonomy of Möbian ducks…

"Well, maybe they purposefully placed the building away from all the loud cars and busy people because they wanted their patients to be at peace…" replied Amy as she got herself together and wiped her brow.

Just when the Rookie and Shadow placed the doctor on the ground, about four paramedics—three of which were möbian and one of which was a human—came out of the front doors followed by Tails. Automatically two of the möbian paramedics grabbed their fellow co-worker-from-another-hospital and brought him onto a gunnery. The other two—followed by one of the lifters that was now checking Dr. Quack's vitals—quickly began to carry the doctor into the hospital. The möbian paramedic that was left behind approached the group.

"I'm going to need one of you to come with me—I need to know what happened and who to contact," calmly asked the paramedic. He could care less about the status and fame of the möbians standing in front of him—sure the paramedic respected them, but he had a job to do and that always came first.

The group of five made eye contact with one another which was abruptly stopped when the ebony hedgehog coughed.

"I don't have the information for who to contact, but I can report what happened…" uneasily said Shadow as everyone—except for the Rookie—kind of gawked at his generosity.

Tails was the first one to snap out of it, "I'm one of his patient's brothers, and I'm typically responsible for contacting Dr. Horatio on behalf of my older brother—we're pretty close to the point where I have his home phone number."

As the kitsune was saying this he walked over to the Tornado and pulled out a pen and paper from a compartment. Using the dashboard, the young yellow fox scribbled the number onto the slip of paper, got down from the pilot's seat, and handed the info to the paramedic.

"Thank you for your help all of you, your friend is in good hands…"

With a curt nod, and a let's-go gesture of his hand, the paramedic and the skate-shoed hedgie—who waved his allies a til-next-time—disappeared into the hospital's lobby.

The Rookie glanced at his friends who were showing signs of conflict on whether to follow them and help out or to not get in there way. Seeing how family members—or people who had information on the patient—were the only ones allowed to help, they ended up making their way towards the plane.

"Knuckles, think you're strong enough to turn the Tornado around?"

"What kind of question is that, Tails? Haven't you seen me pick up boulders larger than that airplane?"

Wearily smiling, the fox hopped into the cockpit of his brother's gift—Amy still a bit worried for Sonic's doctor, sat in the passenger seat without a word.

"Hey Rookie, mind giving me a hand," smirked the red echidna. The Rookie gave him a huh-what look—silently questioning the guardian's previous prideful statement of being able to carry large boulders. The redhead's left eyelid fell a bit and he sweatdropped.

"Well, I thought I could do it by myself but I strained my arm during that fight with Metal Sonic…" whispered Knuckles as they walked towards the back of the plane.

The Rookie gave him a strict glare that clearly asked why Knuckles hadn't asked for ice from the paramedics… He was expecting a decent answer from the spiky möbian but instead was given a shrug of the shoulder. Knuckles proceeded to turn the plane around—trying to make the other red möbian drop the subject.

Frowning, the wolf pushed the plane helping the former temp-leader of the Freedom Fighters. Once the airplane made a 180 turn, they latched onto either side of the plane's wings, and soon they were jetting off into the direction of Tails' home. Dusk approaching as they increased their altitude...

****Back to Tails' House****

With a start, Sonic came back into reality and sat up from the floor of the kitchen. Becoming aware of his surroundings, he sighed in annoyance.

' _Seriously, I get a mouth full of dirt almost every other year as is…'_ thought the hedgie as he cleaned the drool off his face with his glove. He needed to wash his garments anyway…

"You know, I never would've imagined you to be a snorer—considering all the energy you have…"

The blue blur looked upwards towards the threshold between the kitchen and the living room. Sonic's frown only tightened...

' _Of course…'_

"It's pretty well known that snoring correlates with having fatigue, then again one can be full of contradictions…" simply smirked the purple bird.

For once, the hero of Möbius stayed silent—somehow Melts was slowly getting under his skin.

Melts was getting under his skin? Sonic almost blinked—not a lot of people could do that… maybe he was pretty tired…

Melts gave out his hand, offering help in lifting the hedgehog off of the kitchen floor—to which the speed demon accepted.

"I tried getting you to the couch earlier, but you wouldn't let me. You ended up sinking onto the floor instead…" lightly chuckled Melts.

"Uh, thanks…"

He was about to ask how long he'd been out, but a sudden tingling surge of energy shot up his spine. He shook it off and tried to continue the conversation, yet the sensation came back.

"Um, are you cold or something?"

"Huh, it's not that cold..." said the blue möbian as he gave the bird a confused look.

"So then, why are you puffing up all of the sudden?"

He hadn't noticed that his quills were bristling and now that he knew that they were, Sonic tried to pat his quills back down.

"No, I think- I'm really not feeling too hot actually-"

"So then, yes, your cold?"

"Uh, yeah… I think I'll go finish off that nap in bed," mumbled the speedster as he walked off to his room. Melts decided to go back and watch more television after hearing Sonic's doorknob click. The idea of watching more of that dark-humored show he was watching had been interrupted by the front door opening.

"Hello, Sonic?"

Said person turned around from the couch and saw Knuckles come out of the mini entrance hall. Melts waved at him with a curious smirk and Knuckles waved back in uncertainty.

"Uh… Tails," called the red echidna as he turned his head to the door in the small hallway. Amy answered in return.

"Tails is still putting the plane away right now, what's up," asked the pink hedgie as she entered the small lobby next to the living room. Before Knuckles even had a chance to completely point at the purple bird Amy realized the cause of Knuckles' reaction. Knowing that the guardian of the Master Emerald didn't have a TV—only news from his new radio-headset—Amy decided to explain who he was.

"Oh, that's Melts. He stopped by earlier to thank Tails for saving him this morning—we had him watch over Soniku for us. Speaking of Soniku, how is he," Amy asked while she walked into the living room. She was actually kind of satisfied to come back to a non-paparazzi infested house.

"He got up about three hours ago, went to the kitchen for a bite and then fell asleep on the floor. He woke up about fifteen minutes ago and now he's back in his room taking a nap I believe," briefly informed the purple bird to the two.

"Okay, I'll check up on him after a bit. Knuckles, want anything to eat?"

Knuckles hesitantly brought himself to ask what she was planning to make.

"What is it that your making?"

"Well, I was thinking of making a few chili-dogs for when Soniku wakes up—but now that you guys are here I think I'll make some for you guys," pouted the pink hedgie—she knew that they were criticizing her cooking skills. However, she knew how to make a mean chili-dog solely because it was Sonic's favorite food.

"Yeah, sure I'll have one, but don't add any hot peppers to mine. I don't like spicy food," said Knuckles who knew that Amy was at least good at making hot dogs.

"I'll make one for Tails and Buddy too. Melts, do you want one?"

"No I'm okay, I have dinner waiting for me at home," said Melts who got up from the couch.

' _Huh, he has a family,'_ wondered Amy and Knuckles.

"Well, nice meeting you Melts," said Knuckles who shook the bird's hand. Amy smiled at the purple bird as they shook. Melts nodded his head and once they were done with their greetings/goodbyes the bird began to walk towards the exit. However, he bumped into the owner of the house before leaving.

"Oh, your leaving? Well, thank you for looking over my brother Melts! It was really nice meeting you too," exclaimed the kitsune as the bird gave him a nod and left the house.

"Just letting you guys know, Buddy just left to check up on his family," Tails told his friends.

"Okay, is he coming back tonight," asked Amy.

"No, I think he was a bit shaken up about the attack on the Quack family. We'll probably see him tomorrow though," replied the kitsune as Amy placed a raw hotdog back into the fridge. She then turned on the mini television in the kitchen and began multitasking—she wasn't about to miss the next episode of her favorite show, Blaze, Rogue and Wave'll spoil it for her if she misses it. This caused her to not be able to hear the other two in the living room.

Tails', noticing that Amy was cooking something decent for once, was about to go check up on his older brother—but his short trek was interrupted.

"Hey Tails, saving people now huh," teased Knuckles as he grabbed onto the shoulders of the yellow fox with one arm. With the other hand, the guardian gave his young friend a noogie.

"Ahh, Knuckles stop it," uncomfortably smiled the young mechanic. Whenever he'd get a noogie from Knuckles it felt like he had a headache afterward.

"I was just doing what anyone else would have done," squawked the blushing pre-teen as he got out of his older friend's grip.

"Well, you still deserve some praise points, Tails—something that Sonic seems to forget. You know, even though he practically raised you, you haven't gotten a single shred of his self-centeredness," righteously claimed Knuckles as he smiled proudly at Miles.

"I wouldn't say he's that self-centered, Knuckles," sweatdropped the young genius. His older brother had always been awestruck and proud whenever Tails invented something. He would give his full attention to Tails whenever he spoke of his machines—heck, he even stayed home with Tails for nearly two weeks just to take care of the kit. And that was when Tails merely had a cold… Not to mention the time he took a blow for Shadow during that gun mission a while back. If anything Sonic was secretly selfless! Tails just guessed that Knuckles never got to see that side of Sonic—probably because of their ongoing rivalry… Or maybe because the hedgie just found amusement in making the hothead lose his mind. Either way, Tails wouldn't want to ruin that crazy bond of theirs—so he stayed quiet.

"Speak of the devil," Knuckles raised an eyebrow while Tails turned around to face where he was looking. Sonic was walking in the middle of the hallway where there wasn't any light—the moon outside barely casting a streak of light onto the hedgie, but just enough to show the small grin on the hedgehog's face.

"Sup, guys?"

"Sup yourself, Sonic. Weren't you just taking a nap," asked the mildly interested echidna as he watched his friend walk towards the threshold between the living room and the hallway.

"Couldn't really sleep with that smell in the air! Chili-dogs I presume," smirked Sonic.

"Yep, Amy's making them," answered Tails with slight relief. Sonic hadn't really been himself lately, Tails noticed, so the fact that he literally passed on a nap for some of his favorite food was alleviating.

"Cool, where's Melts?"

"Left to go home, I gave him the okay for whenever he wants to visit. He's a pretty nice guy."

Sonic let out a small growl just below his breathe that only Tails caught—due to his somewhat exceptional ears. He'd ask his older brother about that later, for now, he'd go with the flow—which is what he was planning on doing before Sonic stepped into the light of the living room.

"Whoa, Sonic! How did that happen," Knuckles murmured in concern while he looked at the blue blur's ears.

"How did what happe-" Sonic was about to finish before he realized where Knuckles was looking. Bringing a gloved hand to one of his ears, the speed demon held his breath in denial. That denial diminished when he saw the blood on his fingertips.

"Uh…" was all that he said and he opted to ignore their worried looks as he started to walk to the couch—Knuckles stopped him, though, and the youngest decided to go against the current.

There was definitely no way of getting out of this one now that they saw his reaction before he saw the blood.

"Sonic, I was going to let it go but this-" the now peeved Tails pointed to his elder brother's ears "-this isn't right, you need to tell us what's going on… "

Knuckles wasn't as angry as the yellow kit, but he was pretty unhappy to know that his childhood friend wouldn't entrust him with his well-being. So he threw in a cliche, "Sonic, we're your friends," sentence and grabbed onto Sonic's shoulder's to refrain him from moving. Yet, Sonic's nerves kicked in since being constrained while being personally pried open brought back… unhappy memories… With a force that he wasn't even aware he had during the moment, the speedster thrashed his way out of the redhead's grip.

"Nothing's wrong. It's probably a side effect from whatever they gave me at the hospital," growled the co-leader of the Freedom Fighters. He then tried to get to the couch in the living room but was blocked again by Knuckles and Tails.

"You and I both know that that's not possible—since when does anesthesia cause bleeding? If you won't explain your ears then why don't you explain the broken mirror in your bathroom," angerly demanded the kitsune. Tails had been trying to make eye-contact with Sonic the entire time but it was only after he said that that the hedgie returned the stare. Knuckles was just perplexed since he didn't know what they were talking about.

"You snooped around my room," it was only a statement but it was clear that they were treading into the trust zone (no pun intended).

"Sonic, the freakout during the party was enough for any one of us to try and find out what's wrong with you," Knuckles firmly explained to try and get his friend to cool down. Knuckles didn't know that the freakout was in correlation with what they were talking about, he just thought that it might cease the tension—but it only did the opposite.

"Like I said, there's nothing wrong with me-"

"Then why were you trying to cover up that punch mark in the mirror? I know those tickets weren't expired, Sonic," countered Tails.

"Punch mark? You mean he broke a mirror" questioned the surprised guardian—he'd never known his speedy friend to be someone to break things with intent… Sonic was hiding something…

"..."

"..."

Both brothers fell into a challenging stare off—both faces pent up in frustration as Knuckles nervously began to wonder if they were going to argue—he wasn't a true pacifist but he never enjoyed the fights between the two brothers. He hadn't heard them arguing since the Fiona Fox incident, but that incident was bad…

Two minutes passed with only Amy's TV show acting as a slightly-louder-than-white noise in the background.

" _-because I care about your well-being,"_ came a voice from the TV show.

The blue hedgehog, who's known for being competitively stubborn, broke eye-contact with his younger brother and ending up glanced to the side in frustrated anger.

"Guys, the chili-dogs are finished," called out the pink hedgehog in the kitchen.

The kitsune kept his daggers on Sonic for a few more seconds before deciding that they should eat. As if a temporary truce was agreed upon, Tails marched into the kitchen. Knuckles, who stayed behind, offered to help clean the blood off of his ears and gloves…

The echidna shuddered for a brief moment as a memory came to his mind. The blue blur, already in an awkwardly bad mood, blankly saw this but ignored the reaction and he refused the help that was offered. Knuckles uneasily huffed and followed the young fox into the kitchen. Sonic, now knowing that no one was looking, sighed in minor regret as he trailed over to their location.

Amy was busy handing over Tails' and Knuckles' chili-dogs and their accompanying condiments—not noticing that the hero of Möbius was behind her searching for a napkin to wipe the blood off. He could feel the few glances that he was receiving from the table, but he just ignored it. Sooner or later they'd drop it, right? He almost finished dampening the thick napkin in his hands when he heard a gasp from a certain pink hedgie. Sonic had been hoping that she would sit down on the chair facing away from him, but he's luck wasn't always good now was it?

"Soniku, your awake," the red-dressed hedgie exclaimed and she practically ran up to him. Sonic faced her but had to lean back as she tried to kiss him on the nose. She succeeded and opened her eyes to an awkwardly embarrassed expression. Amy was about to comment on how cute he looked, but she finally noticed the red track that had leaked out of his ears. Immediately, she held and tilted his head to get a better look.

"Soniku, what happened," her tone squeaked at the end and when her lover all but looked to the side in refusal to speak, she turned to the others on the table. They had lowered their food when the tension rose back up. Reading the atmosphere perfectly between the three, Amy knew that she had missed something.

"What happened," this time her question was directed to the echidna.

"That's what we asked but we got _nothing_ back as an answer," interjected Tails like a hot geyser. Just like a geyser, he abruptly simmered down to a stop—it didn't bring Sonic's ears to swerve back to the front though.

He knew he was going to get an ear-full from Amy, he just didn't expect her to stall it like she was doing now. She just deeply breathed in and turned the TV off. Amy went to grab the first aid kit located near the stairs to the basement and came back to a bewildered Sonic. She then sat him down where the others were. The whole time Sonic would try and avoid their gazes. Before Amy proceeded to clean out his ears, she gave him his meal for the day.

"I made your favorite with a bit of that special seasoning that you like," Amy said as she blocked his view from the others. Grateful for this, Sonic grabbed one of the four chili-dogs and began to munch on it. Amy was pretty surprised at the amount of blood that was clogged in his ear—Sonic even considered going to Dr. Quack to check if his ears would permanently damage later on. The notion was shot down as Amy said she'd received a notice that the hospital was still shut down because of the paparazzi. Seeing as she wasn't lying, but knowing that she was hiding something, Sonic nodded and decided to call the doctor the next day—he didn't want to piss her off more than he already did. Once Amy was finished, she got up to go and dispose of the cotton balls—throwing the three of them back into the thick tension from earlier.

Suddenly, a package of black and yellow crashed through the window of Tails' kitchen—startling the three of them…

At first, they didn't know what they were looking at, it resembled a pile of crap combined with bags of… Chaos Chips?

' _Aww geez,'_ Knuckles and Tails thought as they recognized the person.

"Hey, Tails, Sonic! Do you know where Knuc- Knuckles!"

Said person grumbled but the bee didn't acknowledge that as his focus had gone to the speedster's face. The bee gulped at the hollowish death-glare sent directly at him from Sonic. That's when the bee remembered what he did a few days ago…

"Heh, heh… j-just wanted to let Knuckles k-know that I'll be with V-Vector," stuttered the bee who then flew back out of the window. The blue blur would've followed if not for the awkward tension that fell on him ten fold. Sonic decided that now would be a good time for an actual nap…

Quietly pardoning himself, he left the two—including Amy who just got back from throwing out the trash, seeing how they haven't yet. He made a beeline to his room, feeling their stares make a hole in the back of his head, and promptly shut the door—silently locking it… They heard the holographic TV turn on, and a few minutes later light snoring.

The other two looked at Tails, where they were feeling an enraged vibe slowly flare-up.

"He hasn't even jogged since we got back today, and he expects me to believe he's fine," exasperated the now fuming kit.

"Does he really not trust us enough," almost sadly asked the redhead.

This statement dampened the mood by a metric ton—causing Tails to deflate. What came up more than the sadness of not be confided in was his worry for his older brother. Sonic really wasn't acting like his normal self and that was seriously frightening him… Although his friends see him almost every day, most of them don't catch Sonic when he's off guard like Tails did… The scare the other day when his big brother keeled over the couch...

It just… it just hurt not knowing if he could've helped…

If he would've died right then and there…

Tears pricked the frustrated kitsune who shoved his seat from the table and stood up. He stocked pass Knuckles and Amy and stopped by the threshold of the living room…

"I'm… _sniff,_ I'm going to bed. You guys are more than welcomed to stay in the guest rooms or couch…" said the fox in a slightly watery tone—facing away from them.

"Tails, just… just don't push him further away then we've already had…" called back Amy before the young one left.

Tails stood there for a few moments in quiet, like a statue, and then he continued his way towards his room—quickly walking past his brother's room. They heard the door shut which was later accompanied by a few muffled noises.

"Well… I've got to get back to Angel Island and see if the Master Emerald is still where I left it. I trust Mighty, but not Rouge," said the red echidna trying to lighten up the mood a bit but failing.

"Hopefully it's still intact. I'll stay in one of the guest rooms and keep an eye on the two—particularly Sonic…" solemnly replied Amy as she watched her lover's rival get up and head to the front door. She followed him to make sure that the door was locked. Knuckles stopped before exiting out into the starry night and turned around to face Amy.

"Keep me posted if anything major occurs."

"How if you don't even have a cell phone," lightly smirked the pink hedgie as Knuckles gave her a small smirk back.

"You know, through Mighty's home phone," the echidna smirked even more. He could tell that Amy and Sonic were hanging out a little more lately—she was becoming a bit more snarky just like the blue moron. As they waited for the other to say their goodbyes, the smirks subtly fell from their faces.

A pregnant pause fell upon the two, to which Knuckles broke with an inquiry.

"Do… you think he's going to be alright," quietly asked the red-quilled möbian—concern written on his face.

Amy wanted to tell him 'yes,' but even she couldn't convince herself completely—so she opted to tell him what she was thinking.

"I don't know, but hopefully he'll tell us about whatever it is that's going on with him," she strained to smile a bit. ' _Before it's too late,'_ said her subconsciousness, but she shoved that thought down—not willing to jinx it. Knowing Sonic, it'd be hella hard to get him to talk… luckily, or—in Sonic's case—unfortunately, he has some very stubborn friends...

The red echidna gave his friend a hopeful nod before heading off into the woods, towards his island. Amy watched as he left and was about to lock up for the night but the back of her neck stood up. She, strangely enough, felt someone watching her…

Flashbacks of what she saw earlier today in the sky flickered in her mind as she tried to calm herself down. No one ever resurrects from being long dead—no one…

There simply was no such thing…

* * *

 **If you make artwork of this please credit the story and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


	10. Chapter 9: Point Break

**Chapter 9**

Point Break

* * *

Author's Note:

I added like two characters from the comics—as fillers—but they won't have in depth characterization like Sonic, Tails, Amy, Shadow, Rogue, Knuckles, Horatio, Eggman, and the Rookie. For the sake of this story, it's main plot, and my sanity I will mainly be focusing on the drama between those nine (*cough* eleven) characters! As much as I dislike filler characters, I am aware of the possibility of losing depth/quality if there are more main characters in the story—so ples forgives if you finds any characters in dis chap that are thrown ins withouts much contexttt! If a character you read in this fic doesn't have a lot of context/depth then they aren't that important to the main plot btw.

Also, there are a few portions in this chapter that might be a bit… scary (like it could give some people the hebe jebes scary). I'll be putting '/' for when it occurs so you can skip it if you want.

P.S. Originally this chapter was going to be longer, but I felt like it would've taken away the mini climax here.

Anyways, here is thy next chapter!

* * *

Neither of the two brothers spoke to each other the next day—leaving poor Amy Rose to walk on eggshells whenever she encountered both of them in the house. And when she did Sonic would always try to dissipate the tension by leaving. Since they were young, Sonic, if he wasn't provoked, had always been somewhat the subtle peacemaker of her group of friends—even though he'd almost always be the one to ignite the fights. And now that she thought about it, it made sense since he was practically the glue of the team…

Tails though… she'd rarely ever got to see him as mad as he was during that argument yesterday. It was pretty much impossible to get him to lash out like that—especially towards his own brother. She tried not to notice matted fur under his eyes, and she pretended that she didn't hear the faint sobs coming from the mechanic's room. The rest of the day was spent trying to get either one of them to talk to the other—both refusing all her attempts in the end. Amy herself had been mad at the two, and by the time the moonlit the sky she decided to call it a night.

But that was yesterday—today Amy Rose was determined with a passion to get those two to make amends.

If she could get the two to eat breakfast together, that is…

"Tails, I know you're awake! I heard the sink turn on in your bathroom," proclaimed the now frustrated pink hedgie.

A quiet mumble of refusal was heard on the other side of the kit's door—which set her eyes afire.

"Listen here, Tails Miles Prower! If I don't see your butt on that kitchen seat-" but Amy caught herself before she could make a threat. She, herself, was angry at the situation too—but she was trying to put all her attention into fixing it rather than do what these two were doing.

' _Calm down, Amy, the last thing we want here is to scare him away…'_ thought the pink hedgehog as she magically evaporated her hammer.

"Tails, please… I even went out to go get you a chocolate milkshake and that was at 6am!"

Her lips rose up by a centimeter as she heard shuffling in his room, and when the door cracked open she was met with hesitantly un-decisive eyes…

"It's even got whip-cream on top with sprinkles," softly spoke the older one as she offered him a smile. Tails didn't really return the smile, but he huffed in defeat.

"Does it have brownie chunks," attacked the fox as he tried to come up with any excuse not to go. His last-ditch effort was in vain as he watched Amy nod her head in a slightly wicked grin.

"Tons."

With a slight tinge of red on his cheeks, Tails dragged himself out of his room. Amy and Sonic—actually anyone who took care of Tails—would never give him any sweets in the morning. Sure Tails was practically old enough to sneak them in, or get some himself, but Tails would usually be loyal enough not to.

Besides, he knew that eating or drinking anything sweet for breakfast was bad for anyone's health.

Amy watched her young friend head to the kitchen, and—once she heard his seat slide across the tiles—she approached her lover's door.

"Soniku, wake up! It's time for breakfast—I bought pancakes from that one store that you guys are obsessed with," said Amy as she knocked on his door. She hadn't heard him get up at all, but that was expected since he had been sleeping a lot lately…

"Soniku?"

Out of habit, she gripped the doorknob and was surprised that it was unlocked.

' _Huh, looks like he left his door open last night…'_

In general, Sonic wouldn't typically lock his door—neither would Tails—but Tails was currently being hostile towards Sonic as of late. And Sonic, who knows what was going on with him right now, had been locking his doors… But now that his door was open, Amy really couldn't hold back her curiosity.

She witnessed herself open the door and slip into his room. Amy half expected to be yelled at by a defensive blue hedgie but was kind of intrigued to find her Soniku lying in the middle of his bed—snoring soundly. She nearly melted and had to control herself from bopping his nose. Controlling herself became easy to do once her attention went to the several blankets that wrapped him up like a burrito.

' _Isn't it like-'_ she wondered as her eyes automatically went to the thermostat which read 83 degrees Fahrenheit. Her wide eyes went back to the lump of bread on the bed—almost missing the end of a small shiver. Amy tip-toed forwards towards him and placed her hand on his forehead—instead of the hot feverish touch she was expecting, she felt coldness. She stared at him for a moment, taking in the small bags that were beginning to form under his circles—even though he had slept for the majority of the time.

' _Sonic…'_

Amy was about to let the hero sleep more—maybe call her own doctor to come and check up on Sonic—when she started to hear jumbled noise come out of his mouth. Thinking that he was waking up, she leaned forward to try and catch what he was saying.

"...L-leave," the hammer-wielding hedgie was shocked and offended—thinking that he was awake—before realizing he hadn't batted an eye yet.

Never once having seen this in all her time spent with the blue blur, she stayed by his side—maybe he'll end up telling her what was affecting him. At this point, privacy could be damned because her friend needed help. Besides Tails wouldn't mind noone being in the kitchen with him right now—considering how he'd acted this morning when she tried to get him out of his room.

"...don't… we-e're nooot… do ttthis, pleas… i-it," he mumbled incoherently. Her interest in hearing what he might spill dropped when she saw him shift twice in discomfort.

"Hey, Soniku. Everything's fine—it's going to be-" Amy tried to reassure him in his sleep, but was cut off.

"-t-they'lll ge you… a-all of… iss m' fault," interrupted the sleeping speedster who suddenly stopped moving. This rang bells in Amy's head as she tried waking him up—disregarding her previous resolve to let him sleep.

"S-Soniku?"

She tried to be quiet so that Tails wouldn't hear the commotion—she didn't want him to worry any more than he already did about his older sibling. Just when her shaking wouldn't work, she felt a tiny wave of energy pulse from Sonic—who promptly sat awake as Amy was leaned away…

"BROTHER!"

"Tails is fine—his in the kitchen," said Amy who tried to get the speedster to calm down from his nightmare. At first, he didn't really seem to recognize that the red-dressed hedgie was there and was looking around like he was looking for someone. With a forced smile—not willing herself to show how scared she was for him after that reaction—Amy waved her hand in his face.

"Sonic he's okay."

Blinking out of it, said person gave her a sheepish look. Cheeks tinted red in embarrassment, Sonic quietly sagged back into the pillows—trying to sink into the covers. His admirer wasn't going to let him do that and excuse himself—she grabbed onto his arm-

' _Wait wha- he's burning up now?'_

The blue blur saw what she must've been thinking and slid out of her now weak grasp.

"So... how'd you get in here?"

The change in subject rattled her mind, but she decided to ask him about what she just witnessed later—when Tails would somehow not be around, maybe after their date today.

"Your door was unlocked and I was trying to wake you up so we can all eat together—but judging by the noise in the kitchen, I think that's not going to happen…" she sighed.

She could tell that he was kind of grateful that Tails was already finished with his breakfast, but she could also feel the guilt.

"...Thanks for all the effort, Ames… I… you should go home and get some rest today," Sonic said in return.

' _That way she won't have to deal with the upcoming argument that we're bound to have today,'_ he thought.

' _Aaaand he forgot…'_ she mentally sighed.

"Nope, that's not going to happen Soniku! I'm sticking with you guys 'til we get this solved," she replied with more energy this time.

' _Until I find out what is wrong with you!'_

After hearing this, the blue hero turned around in bed—back facing Amy—and he covered the majority of himself with sheets.

"I've been meaning to ask this, Ames. I'm planning to head to Apotos this morning and I was wondering if you wanted to come along…"

' _So he didn't forget,'_ happily thought the pink heroine. She could imagine the small blush that would creep up his face whenever he'd asked for something like that.

"Of course, Soniku-!"

She abruptly stopped as an idea popped into her head. Amy wouldn't normally put a date with her—eventual—boyfriend on the line, but his health was more important to her.

"That is, if you let me in on what's going on," negotiated the former co-leader of the Freedom Fighters as she put her hand on his shoulder. She was planning to convince him to tell her what's up after the date, but what better way to make him speak than to make a deal?

Sonic almost choked on his own spit—she was even willing to sacrifice a date with him? He sat back up to face her and see if she was tricking him or joking—but there weren't any traces of lies in her light green eyes.

' _I really have them worried…'_ concluded the blue blur as he looked to the side in shame and nodded. She placed her hand on his shoulder in a reassuring gesture, but also to check if her mind was playing tricks on her about his dramatic temperature changes. Sure enough, he was at a normal warmth—so it must have been her mind.

At that moment, they both heard Tails walk past the room and into his own before either of the two spoke.

"I'll let Tails know that we're leaving soon," said Amy as she got off the side of his bed and proceeded to the exit. Sonic just watched as she closed the door behind her—in some way Amy made him feel safe. He didn't know when he started falling for her—he never really expected himself to. After all, she was kind of crazy

Like intense-bipolar crazy.

The blue hedgehog smirked as he recalled all of the times that she nearly killed him with that hammer of hers. Finally feeling more energized since the past two days, the blue blur hopped out of his bed to follow her.

Tails gave permission to the both of them to use his plane—mainly because Amy persuaded him with promises that Sonic would open up to her and that they'd finally find out what was up. If she hadn't had said that, Amy was pretty sure Tails wouldn't even let his brother step outside… Plus, he was still pretty angry towards the blue savior.

Nonetheless, the two found themselves packing snacks, money, and anything else that would be needed for the short trip. Sonic had offered to just run across the ocean to the place, but Tails and Amy wouldn't have it—sure he was fully recovered from that insane dosage he received, but they weren't willing to risk it. Plus, Amy really didn't feel like chancing a drowning today.

"Alright, Tails we'll see you in about five hours from now," cheerfully exclaimed the pink hedgie who was in the passenger seat of the Tornado. She had wanted to fly the plane and show off her flying skills to her lover—since she had been practicing a bit with Rogue and her fighter jet from G.U.N.—but Sonic insisted that he piloted the plane. She could tell it was because he was sick of being stuck in the house and not being able to do much other than walk around—plus, he hadn't piloted this plane since… well, since he met Tails.

Speaking of Tails, the elder brother looked at his younger brother to try and offer a small reassuring smile—because he knew that Tails would worry about him during their trip. Tails stared for a split second and then redirected his gaze somewhere else in slight frustration. He wasn't as angry as he was the other day—in fact, Tails was more hurt that Sonic was now confiding in Amy…

Sonic's expression flickered with his own frustration, but it ended up settling on guilt.

Nothing was really said after that—except for Amy's farewell as they took off. Tails returned the farewell and watched as the plane disappeared into the clouds—but not before Tails caught his brother sadly glancing back at him.

Huffing, he was pretty used to being alone from time to time—since Sonic would often go for a run—and he'd usually use this time to work on his projects in peace. The fox wasn't really in the mood to work on any of his current projects today, so he planned on visiting the Chaotix—he didn't know that they were in town before the fiasco a day ago.

A few minutes later and Tails was ready to head over to their house. Before Vector and his crew left for their vacation—which was after the party—Charmy had been tinkering with the breaker wires, without anyone knowing _somehow,_ and now they were living in the dark. Knowing Vector was too proud to ask for help, Espio had ended up asking if Tails was able to fix their breaker system. The mechanic promised that he'd do just that when the Chaotix would come back from their vaca, but it looks like the chameleon must've forgotten. Oh well, surprising them it is! The kit merely stepped out the door when his holographic wristwatch went off. Pulling the end of his glove out of the way, the yellow möbian hit a green button. He hadn't used his wrist-watch since the War ended…

"Hello, Tails speaking-"

"Hi Tails, it's been a while! How have you been?"

"Sally? Oh, it's been fine," Sally could tell that Tails was slightly off about something… she'd ask about that later as her priorities needed to come first...

"Is Amy with you guys? She hasn't been picking up my calls..." the chipmunk asked.

"She and Sonic just left on a date and I think they both left their communicators. I don't know where they went off to, but…" Sally was pretty sure there was something going on now that the kit didn't look too happy on screen.

"So you're alone right now?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, I've just called in a meeting for any available Freedom Fighters to come and debrief the outcome of the war with me…" Sally said in a bit of a shameful tone. She hadn't fought aside them 'til the very end and she didn't know the details of the war's outcome. Tails knew that the King and Queen wouldn't have allowed their daughter to fight in what looked like a violent war. They would rather have her—the future queen—safe than risk her life in the front lines like she had been at the beginning of the war. She did help Knuckles strategize plans through the wrist-watches however, so Tails thought that she shouldn't feel the way she did. She helped as much as she could when she was able to—without her parents knowing.

"I was planning on visiting the Chaotix, but I can attend right now," Tails stated as he changed directions.

"Thanks, Tails, I'm going to need all the information I can get to see how we can avoid hitting rock bottom in a war," Sally smiled nervously.

"Sally, don't blame yourself or your parents, they had their reasons and so did you," eased the kitsune as he took off into the sky.

"… How's Sonic been doing by the way? I've heard he's recovering," Sally interjected with an inquiry of concern. Tails noticed she had changed the subject and concluded that she couldn't forgive herself for abandoning the Resistance/Freedom Fighters during the war, when she couldn't help locate Sonic, or the mere fact that she didn't attend the after party. He was sure she had her reasons for the last one—the other two were already explainable. He'd make sure to talk to her about Sonic since Tails himself felt terrible that he couldn't protect his own brother in the first place. Then that brought his mind back to the argument with the speedster.

"Yep," Tails said with a hint of annoyance.

' _Weird, is he upset with Sonic…why would that be?'_

"That's good… well, I'll see you at Freedom HQ then," said the brown möbian—she knew when the kitsune wasn't in the mood to talk about details…

"Sally out."

Tails was relieved that Sally didn't intrude further on Sonic's health and clicked the wrist-watch off. He felt kind of bad for not letting her in on what he felt, but he needed his privacy…

' _Just like how Sonic needs his,'_ subconsciously stated a voice within, but was suppressed by the still lit frustration that he felt towards his brother. The usually rational fox began to fly towards Freedom HQ—maybe he'd be able to get his mind off of his worries.

About an hour later Tails was hovering over the used-to-be-secret entrance of HQ— which had been located by Eggman's robots and practically destroyed into bits. This had happened three months after the blue blur had been captured—Knuckles and the others had to create their own HQ in Tail's underground bunker. The small bunker that they had used during the war—located on the outskirts of Capital City—would now be a secret-back-up HQ if needed. Tails really didn't mind that they were using his bunker since he had his own at home, but that didn't mean it was a massive hassle to move all his equipment and projects after the war—sure he had help from Sonic and friends, but the city bunker was filled with everything you would think of. Other than that, Tails was happy to give the leader of the Freedom Fighters a new secret base.

The yellow fox landed in front of the still-in-construction HQ and knocked on the large metallic doors. After six knocks, a mini compartment popped open from the side of the door—to which Tails dropped his wristwatch into. It closed as a device—with a camera—scanned the kit. Tails was quite proud of this invention of his, it was able to recognize members by taking their one-of-a-kind wrist-watches—which contained information of identity—and then by scanning the owner of the watch.

" **Tails Miles Prower"** announced the system as the front doors of the HQ slid open. After going through a few corridors—most were intact but some were still being repaired—the kitsune arrived at the meeting room. To his surprise, there were more people than he was expecting there to be for a sudden meeting. Of the eight seats surrounding the meeting table, there was a single chair left. Tails wasn't really surprised that he had arrived last though—mainly because, as he told himself earlier, he and Sonic live pretty far away from HQ. It still didn't make it less awkward for the fox to have most of the eyes in the room look towards him and greet him at the same time.

"Heh, good morning to you guys too," sheepishly replied the youngest member as he took the last seat next to Buddy and Knuckles. The kit looked around noting all of the people who were with them currently. He'd been surprised that Team Dark themselves were attending—then again, Tails was pretty sure that G.U.N. had wanted them to seek out more information on the initial events that triggered the war. G.U.N. was G.U.N. and they wanted to know practically everything.

A few shook their heads in return and then they all waited for Sally—who was checking if anyone else was coming by looking at her mini laptop's texts. The chipmunk blinked and simply closed her mini laptop, then she looked towards her best friend sitting adjacent to her chair.

"Nicole, were any of the other invitations through email accepted?"

Nicole shook her head to which Sally simply nodded.

"Okay, let's get this meeting started then," declared the blue-vested möbian as she got up from her seat. All side conversations ceased as all eyes befell the leader of the Freedom Fighters.

"Thank you guys for coming. I've asked all of you to attend this meeting so that we can debrief the final events of the war against Eggman and Infinite," she scanned the room before her own eyes fell to a spot on the table. Sally's blue orbs rose and landed on the yellow kitsune in the room.

"But mainly because I want to apologize for being absent during a time of need…" Sally then focused her attention on the yellow möbian in the room who suddenly spoke up.

"You don't need to apologize for something that was protocol, Sally! As the heir to the Acorn Kingdom, it's necessary to keep you safe when things go south-"

"But it doesn't make it right nonetheless," the princess interjected in frustration—she must still carry some resentment for how her parents sent out guards to hound her out of leading the Resistance. She understood their reasoning, her future obligation, but it wasn't fair to leave her team in the middle of a war.

"Before we begin debriefing… Knuckles…" the echidna perked up to his name being called upon.

"For your great leadership during the war, I would like to promote you to head position of the-" almost everyone was shocked and was quietly watching the chipmunk give up her leadership.

"No," quickly interrupted the redhead as he crossed his arms.

"Although your offer is flattering, I am—by no means—not able to switch between protecting the Master Emerald and being the leader of the Freedom Fighters. I'm only good as an ally. Plus, you're a great strategist, Sally, which is one quality that deems you as a great leader—that's one of the reasons why we won this war. In fact, if it wasn't for the plans you've sent us, we would've lost the war. I'm sorry, but no," reasoned the red echidna with crossed arms…

"Knuxy is right, honey. There really isn't anyone else better fit to lead the team—well… from what I've witnessed at least," sprinkled in Rouge as she leaned back in her seat in amusement while the echidna's face tinged light red.

"I think their right, Sally. You really shouldn't be too hard on yourself for the things that are out of your control," pitched in Nicole.

"Yes, but-"

"We're a team, aren't we? Team members substitute for other members when they aren't able to," the kitsune mentioned while the Rookie smiled in support. Shadow simply nodded once and Omega… well, made some type of beeping noise. They just guessed it was an affirmative reply.

Sally really wasn't one to be insecure about most things, but she did often criticize herself over her own leadership whenever something went wrong. She would often put the fault on herself even. However, after taking in their feedback she looked at them all with a tiny—but growing—resolve…

"...I'll keep doing my best then."

"That's all we ask, hon," approved the white bat—cueing the next topic of the meeting…

About three hours past as each person shared their experience and information of the war—Buddy only confirming with head nods. By the time the fourth hour strolled by, the group was finished sharing their perspectives and were ready to wrap it up. Up until the bat of the group spoke up.

"Anyone wanna talk about Big Blue by the way? I haven't seen him since that Sushi-God fiasco at the party and I've been seeing newscasts claiming that he's down for the count. Tails?"

The kit fought the urge to fall into another sour mood and ended up trying to play it off—yet, the whole room knew that he was bothered by that question. Knuckles being the only one who didn't seem to be curious, which the chipmunk found suspicious...

"Yeah, the hospital just overdosed him on some anesthesia—most likely because of the chaos he ensued when he went there," huffed out the fox as he avoided eye-contact.

"Other than that he's _fine_ …" he nearly spat out.

Reading the faint tone in the mechanic's voice, the rest of the gang just decided to drop the subject. Besides, they had a pretty long debriefing and they all just wanted to get on with their day. When everyone began to rise up from their chairs, Sally tried to hunt down Tails to see what was up between the two brothers. However—just like the speedster himself—Tails was practically gone with the wind. Almost like he knew that she'd ask him about their current issue.

Before the princess of Möbius had a chance to track down the kitsune, Knuckles firmly patted her shoulder.

"I'd let him be for now."

"What's going on between him and Sonic," quietly tried Sally. She had seen the looks on Tails and Knuckles the first time that they mentioned the speedster, and, although the kit's expression had been more intense, she could tell that the guardian was frustrated too—even if his expression had been slightly dull.

"Let's just say that Sonic is being a pain in the ass as of late…" replied the redhead. The night that Tails and he interrogated Sonic, Knuckles wasn't as upset as the fox had been—but the more that the guardian thought about it, the more he questioned why his blue buffon of a friend wouldn't trust him with his own issues. Knuckles would always accept and even ask for help—believing that the others would be able to help him—particularly Sonic, since the Blue Blur seemed to enjoy assisting his comrades. Yet when Tails and he offered just a simple ear to the hedgehog, an opportunity to lend a hand to the obviously troubled hero, all they received were curt rejections—which meant that the speedster didn't think that they could possibly fix whatever hitch he was going through.

Knuckles the Echidna wasn't really known to be acutely aware of social nuances—mostly due to living alone on an island during his childhood—but one thing was for sure, he knew that trust was a two-way lane. That Sonic didn't trust them enough…

Knowing that the former Freedom Fighter leader was beating around the bush, the chipmunk was about to ask why the hedgehog was being a pain. Apparently interrupting Sally was a thing today as the echidna beat her to it. Instead of talking about the blue speed demon, Knuckles pointed behind the princess.

"I think someone wants to have a word with you—I'll be keeping an eye on Tails for now seeing as he just went off towards the general area of Angel Island," wrapped up the echidna as he gave a small wave and walked out of the meeting room.

The princess frowned and didn't wait to watch her red friend leave since someone else was waiting to speak with her. A shadow of red and tan was what she was met with.

"Thanks for letting us join the meeting, hon. Makes our job as G.U.N. agents a lot easier," the bat aside the black hedgehog said.

"Let us know when another meeting occurs," inputted the formal hedgehog.

' _Always one for small-talk, eh,'_ sarcastically thought the white bat as she sweat-dropped. Shadow kind of reminded her of Knuckles sometimes—the two were kind of similar in personality. Speaking of Knuckles, she'll have to screw with his precious Master Emerald after her talk with Sally—he didn't even say bye to her before he left!

"Anyways, we'd like to talk to you about your latest recruit to your lead team over there," quietly stated Rouge as gestured towards the Rookie at the end of the table. The Rookie was currently talking to Nicole… in sign language? Huh… How come he'd never used that before with any of them…

"G.U.N. has recently selected him as a possible team member of Team Dark. As far as I know, they just want him as a part-timer—you know, whenever we need help on a mission. I guess they liked his ability to use gadgets or something…"

"-unlike Sonic, he's not boisterous when fighting," pitched in Shadow.

"Yeah, it's either that or the fact that he's somewhat stealthy. Well, I just wanted to give you a heads up since you're currently employing him as one of your own," intelled Rouge to Sally.

"As much as I'd like that he stayed full-time as a Freedom Fighter, it's really his choice. Has the head of G.U.N. contacted him yet," asked the princess.

"Actually, they're asking me to recruit him," smiled the bat as she put her hands on her hips in confidence. Sally smiled, having an acquaintance from G.U.N. was helpful from time to time.

"Thanks for letting me know, Rouge."

"Not a problem, hon. Shadow, Omega and I are gonna go see what he says. Then we're off to prep for another mission tonight."

"Okay, well take care you guys."

"You too, see ya," parted Rouge while her other team members began to walk towards the Rookie.

The princess of Acorn Kingdom watched as the last five people interacted with each other—Nicole giving the other four space to talk to the red wolf.

"So Sally, what now," asked the lynx while walking up to her best friend.

"I've gotta go set up the next debriefing meeting—this time it'll be scheduled so that the others can come. I… guess I just wanted to know where I stood with the other Freedom Fighters…" admitted the chipmunk.

It was kind of selfish to call a meeting for that main reason, but she just felt like setting things straight rather than dwelling in more doubts.

"I don't blame you, Sally. What you did was brave—a tad bit selfish, but brave nonetheless," smirked the purple-dressed A.I. möbian. Sally sheepishly smiled at Nicole.

"Thanks Nicole. By the way, since when have you been talking to Buddy in sign language," inquired the chipmunk in astonishment, "I didn't know he could speak sign language let alone you."

"Well, as you know, Dr. Ellidy thought it might have been a good idea for me to speak every language—apparently sign language was included. I wasn't aware that I could speak it until I say Buddy during the meeting. I was wondering why he wasn't speaking during the meeting until I realized, a few hours into the meeting, he was subconsciously making one or two gestures that I could understand," said Nicole as she held her left arm in embarrassment for observing others. She just liked to watch and learn things that those around her do—all so that she might be able to learn something new…

"Cool, you've got to teach me, Nicole," smiled Sally.

"Sure thing, when do you want to start," Nicole asked.

"As soon as tonight's meeting with the Council of Acorn is over."

Silence befell the two as they watched the Rookie accept his recruitment into G.U.N. Sally couldn't be certain, but she thought she saw Shadow's lips curve upwards a bit.

****Apotos****

"Wow Sonic, he got mine spot on!"

"Yeah, well looks like he didn't like me or something," grumbled the blue hedgehog as his and her gaze left the perfectly Amy-shaped popsicle to Sonic's deformed one. They had just arrived at Apotos about thirty minutes ago—the whole ride was filled with Sonic complaining about how the trip would have taken thirty minutes if they had let him run. Instead, it took them a little more than three hours to get to Apotos—even on full throttle. The Blue Blur had been pretty stir crazy by the time they arrived and had to take a twenty-five-minute run to compensate—the pink hedgie ended up falling into one of her little shopping sprees during his run, to which Sonic had to drag her out of inorder to eat ice-cream. Which wasn't too hard to do considering Amy's favorite dessert was, in fact, just that.

To top the trip off, the speedster received a demented version of his head on a popsicle stick—one green gum-ball eye was located at the bottom of his cheek where a grin was marked all the way up to his twisted ear. They were going to get the famous Chocolate Chip Sundae Supreme, but the dude's latest ice-cream invention seemed pretty interesting and Sonic didn't want much—boy, what a mistake that was. Amy simply giggled at the pouting hedgie as he took a small chunk out of his ice-cream blue quills.

"They didn't even get the blueberry flavor right…" muttered the huffing hero. So peeved was the hero of Möbius that he didn't realize liquid ice-cream was dripping. It was only when an eyeball popped out that Amy noticed his ice-cream was melting.

"Huh, Soniku… your ice-cream's melting," she monotonously stated as she licked her treat and pointed towards the ice-cream in his hands. He wasn't paying attention to his dessert, he'd just been staring ahead while simultaneously licking. He gave his messed up ice-cream a glance, but it was all the time that was needed in order to see the entire ear-chunk fall to the ground. The loud splat, along with the slightly sad looking face on the befuddled Blue Blur, almost made the pink hedgie choke on her ice-cream in laughter.

"What th-"

"W-wasn't your ice-cream solid just a minute ago," giggled the pink hedgehog as she tried to finish her sentence.

"Yeah..." he replied.

"That's so strange, mine isn't even dripping… in fact, the weather's kinda chilly up here. Weird huh?"

"Bad luck," offered Sonic in an annoyed but questioning tone as he shrugged one shoulder and bit the other gumball out.

Amy couldn't help herself but gaze at him while he walked aside her. She watched his shiny emerald eyes glint in the light, his unbelievable navy-blue pelt ruffle with the coast's winds, and observed how his lean body would tread forward in near grace. It wasn't often that he'd actually take a stroll with the others, or let alone eat some sort of sweet. In fact, she didn't think he had eaten anything sugary during the party earlier this week. Now that she thought about it, he was more of a savory person than a sweet tooth…

' _Opposites do attract_ ,' a sudden thought breached her mind.

Amy blushed and grabbed her face to try and cover her cheeks—stopping her tracks and causing the Blue Blur to stop about a foot ahead.

"Ames? What's wrong," he asked in mild concern—he uncomfortably tried to keep his expression flat when he turned around and saw the red tint on her cheeks that she was trying to hide. This only made the blue hedgie more uneasy as he nervously smiled at what he got himself into.

"...Ssooo, uh… are you…" peeped the now faintly flushing speedster as he scratched the back of his head. Usually, he'd be able to come up with a distraction—especially when surrounded by a different environment than what he was used to—but somehow nothing was coming to mind. Maybe he should have gone to Spagonia instead…

"W-why don't we walk around and see what's new?"

"Okay."

With that, Amy lead the way all while Sonic mentally slapped himself upside the head for not having a set plan for their little date.

They went through mini crowds here and there, ended up running away from some fans, from a hiding spot they saw street performers pull of crazy stunts—for humans at least—and were now getting their faces painted from children who were raising money for their school field trip. Amy and Sonic were glad that the kids had a little tent to hide in.

Both hedgehogs ended up with glowing green markings around their eyes—almost in the form of a mask for a masquerade party, but more like what you'd see in the movie with the blue human-like people. Finishing touches were being added to the outline of their eyes—similar to Shadow's eye markings—but then the male hedgie loudly sneezed. In his attempt to not sneeze on any of the kids, he moved out of the way and caused the brush to create an egyption like tail at the end of his eyes. Sonic didn't notice this and the kids just rolled with it by adding the same design to his other eye.

Their ice-creams were devoured by the time the kids handed them mini mirrors—well Amy's ice-cream at least since Sonic's completely melted onto his gloves.

Throwing their popsicle sticks in a trash can nearby, the former werehog ran to the nearest bathroom to rinse his water-proof gloves—the pink hedgehog waiting outside and watching a contortionist in mild disturbance.

Sonic's gloves were made to resist water absorption, but it didn't mean that they wouldn't get sticky with any other substances. They were one of the first inventions that his younger brother made for him since Tails knew that Sonic hated getting wet.

' _Tails…'_

' _ **-such a useless distraction...'**_

At a near neck-breaking speed—even for himself—Sonic wrenched his eyes from his gloves and to the mirror before him. He almost sighed in relief when he met his own face in the reflection—if it wasn't for the figure standing, staring at him from behind a cracked-open bathroom stall. He had almost missed it—almost. Almost failed to notice the several skinny ebony arms, claws, and hands that seemed to sluggishly move out of the shadows where the being dwelled in.

' _ **-one of many who will leave,'**_ whispered the motionless figure that seemed to somehow speak right in the blue hedgehog's ear—even though it was lurking across the room.

The airflow in the room and in his lunges ceased as Sonic didn't dare take his eyes off from it's red and black scleras. The resolve to keep the eye-contact flickered when he felt goosebumps all over his body, or at least that's what he thought he felt. Automatically, his attention was diverted to his own large quills which seemed to frizz, flow, and… spark. Dread, buried deep within, slowly began to dig its way out of what little reassurance was left—which ultimately turned into numbness when the hedgehog brought his eyes back to his reflection.

'/'

To a charcoal black hand...

' _ **-leave from us.'**_

Breaching its way from within his mouth.

'/'

Amy—who was still watching the street artist for entertainment—was quietly contemplating on whether to see if Sonic was okay. He'd been in there for more than it would usually take to clean his gloves—she told herself that he was probably cleaning the inside of them too, or smudging the paint off his face? He did find it kind of embarrassing to see that the kids basically gave him eyelashes…

' _Sometimes he has way too much pride,'_ huffed the pink hedgehog as she tried to convince herself that everything was fine. After all—if she even tried to interrogate Sonic now—she was pretty sure he'd zip-up and go on-guard for the rest of the trip. She knew that he didn't have to tell her until after the date, but she was starting to get a bit frustrated. Both would make it all the harder to get closer and see what's going on with him.

' _Guess I'll just have to go in there and ch-'_

A muffled scream—unlike anything that Amy's ever heard—came from the bathroom and was abruptly cut-off. Without registering herself move, she darted into the men's room—sure that she was going to find whoever was screaming bloody murder. She didn't even notice the people that began to gather around the building.

Even though it was obvious that it was her lover, she just couldn't acknowledge that voice—that sound—coming from him. Amy was more convinced that someone else was in the building because, out of all the people she knew, she never—not even in childhood—heard Sonic scream like that. The tough, hard-to-kill, prideful hedgehog—who'd never succumb to fear in the face of a dangerous opponent—had screamed.

When Amy entered the small hallway to the restroom, she immediately felt the same vibe from earlier that morning—from when she had caught him sleeping… The same vibe that sent chills down her spine...

She quickly tore her focus back from the vibe to the current situation and pulled open the stall-room door to find Sonic lifting himself up from the floor. His left hand grabbing onto a sink as his shaky legs failed to support him—his other hand snatching at… whatever he saw in front of his face. His visage etched in uncharacteristic fear—blinding fear. All while slightly out of breath, the hero tilted his head in her direction and she half expected a tiny crumby smile—or a cheesy joke—but his expression stayed the same. He only blinked several times. As if he was trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Again, his ears were bleeding, and… she thought she saw some dark smoke or liquid… escaping his mouth? She didn't know, or had the time, to think as she launched herself to him—shaking him to see if he'd _wake_ up.

"SONIC!"

He didn't seem to hear her so she tugged his arm from the sink and sat him down on the floor in front of her. Amy tried to snap him out of his small trance, but his eyes darted towards a stall—expecting something.

"Soniku, Sonic look at me," she pleaded as she forced him to make eye-contact. Amy felt the gleam of sweat on his cheeks the minute she cupped his face and realized that heat was radiating off of him—and, just as last time, his temperature subsequently dropped to freezing cold. Amy, herself, shivered at the alarming change.

"Sonic, please!"

Just when the pink hedgehog saw a glimpse of wavering acknowledgment in his eyes, the Blue Blur quickly threw his attention to his hands and the tension in his muscles intensified. His eyes slowly becoming glossy.

"Snap out of it!"

As a last resort, Amy—scared at seeing her lover in such a state—couldn't help herself but smack the hedgehog out of his delusion.

"-AH!"

Elbowing himself up from the ground and holding his now burning cheek, the speedster blinked a few times in fearful confusion. Where had that come from? He forced his small tremors into a subdued state as he looked towards the direction of the culprit. The cobalt möbian found himself staring at a teary-eyed pink hedgehog.

"Are you awake now?!"

The silence between them was deafening. They just stared at each other—Amy waiting for Sonic to finally explain, now that she had caught him in whatever it was that was affecting him.

"Are you going to tell me what just happened?! Why I'm seeing blood from, not only your ears, but your mouth," her voice rose as she gestured to his face. He hesitated, and then began to fidget with his hands—Amy knew that gesture, during the party he had hidden it by occupying his hands with his headset and coupons… but now there was nothing to hold onto...

"I-"

"DON'T! Don't lie—I'm done pretending that everything's fine for the sake of whatever the reason is that you can't tell us! Sonic, no!"

Amy sagged after pouring out what she felt like for the past three days and covered her eyes with her hands—she wouldn't have said or done that but what she just witnessed shook her to the core. To see Sonic like that, someone who'd always smile even when in peril, her lover… no.

Guilt contorted his face when he tried to place a still shaky arm on her shoulder, but he retracted it back and thought that the floor looked interesting instead.

"Amy… please… just trust that I can handle-"

"THAT'S JUST IT," her lightly streaming eyes flashed to his face.

"That's exactly the problem, Sonic! You won't let anyone help you—you don't trust anyone to! Not even your close friends! Not even me," spat the now enraged and hurt pink hedgie as she dug holes in his green orbs.

"Do you really expect us to just watch you suffer—not understanding why or how we can help?! You know, sometimes you act _so_ _selfishly!_ "

His mouth opened to object, but she cut him off again.

"NO! Not another word… let's just head back…"

It was silent for a moment as Sonic tried to come up with something to say to the downcasted girl.

"Amy-"

"I think our trip is done…" she said as she brought herself to her feet.

"I'll fly the plane back home whenever you're ready to leave…" raged the female Freedom Fighter as she tiredly wiped her eyes and stocked out of the bathroom.

The ditched hedgehog on the tile floor—in a lackluster mood—sighed in dejection once she was gone. He sat there for a couple of minutes—running over the conversation, or argument, that had just taken place before beginning to cough into his fist. When he opened his eyes, the speedster saw sprinkles of crimson on his glove. Rising from the floor, Sonic chanced a glance at himself in the mirror—half expecting to see that… thing in the stalls again. He's tension dwindled when he saw nothing and then he brought his eyes back to his face where he saw three streaks of red leaking from his mouth—accompanied by two crimson lines on either side of his head. Now that the adrenaline was subsiding, his head began to pound.

"Great, a mild headache—the last thing I needed…" murmured the hero to himself as he wiped off the blood on his face and in his ears using some paper towels. Sonic knew that he wasn't supposed to use paper towels, or anything dissolvable that would go in his bloodstream, but there wasn't a first-aid kit anywhere nearby so what the heck.

Throwing away the trash, now that he was clean, he turned on the sink and cupped his hands to catch the water. In the process of this, he proceeded to clean his dirty glove; the Blue Blur sipped some of the water and splashed the rest on his muzzle and eyes. He rinsed the remaining iron-tasting liquid out of his mouth and rubbed his forehead—attempting to relieve the pain.

'…'

For a few minutes, he stood there—forcing his thoughts to go blank. To avoid images of what he had seen, but there wasn't anything to distract his mind. He decided to exit the building when he thought he heard distant laughter.

' _Am I really going insane?'_

His question was answered when he heard the laughter more distinctly than when he was in the bathroom.

So distinctly that he knew exactly _who_ was laughing.

' _The odds are really against me today…'_ desolately thought the frowning hedgehog as he exited the bathroom and began to walk in the general direction where he'd heard the mad doctor's chortling.

* * *

 **If you make artwork of this please credit me and send me a link of your artwork!**

 **Also, if you see any grammatical or any spelling errors please notify me as it would really help improve my writing.**

 **Thank you!**


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